I heard this article on NPR this morning. I’m sure there are other hardcopy articles floating around that you can actually quote-check me on, but here’s the gist of it.
Various major airport management types are off to Capitol Hill today to beg Congress to extend the deadline for baggage security checks by another year. The original deadline was to be 31 December of this year, still some months away, but …
The airports are claiming that the time limit is unrealistic. It quite possibly is. However, there’s little sign that the airports have really taken it seriously. What they take more seriously is that it will be expensive. Very expensive. Equipment costs. Construction costs. Etc.
All true. But let’s remember why we’re doing this, okay? We want to make sure that every bag that goes onto a plane has had some check for explosives.
What the airports seem to really want to say, but don’t dare do so, is that it’s unnecessary. That there’s already sufficient security. That to do this is just going to cost lots of money and torque off a lot of prospective passengers.
The deadline really has nothing to do with it. They just don’t want to do it.
Now, if they want to have an honest debate about whether the security is really needed, or whether it’s cost effective, or whether the public really wants it, great. Let’s do it.
But don’t drag your feet, then claim there isn’t time, then beg for the first of an indefinite number of extensions, hoping the problem will go away. That’s childish. And dangerous.