Advocacy groups urge travelers to either not fly or protest by refusing the full body scanners and choose pat-downs instead in what is supposed to be US’s busiest travel time this year, with Thanksgiving only two weeks away.
Both security measures are considered time-consuming and intrusive to privacy and have sparked revolt among pilots and passengers.
Concerns about the effects such revolt could have over air travel industry lead to a meeting between Homeland Security (HS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and representatives of the travel companies.
While the HS Secretary emphasized the Department’s commitment to ensuring travel flow while maintaining high security standards, industry representatives pointed out that pilots, passengers and flight attendants refuse to be subjected to full body scans. Furthermore, industry representatives said they received emails and calls from passengers that vow not to fly. They say that while they understand the challenges DHS faces, a line must be drawn.
US officials have bolstered security measure after the discovery of plots attributed to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. As a result, US airports are being equipped with full-body scanners. Approximately 1,000 such scanners are expected to be in place by the end of next year.
The concerns raised by air travel companies are not lacking in substance. A survey from 2008 showed that some 41 million flights were avoided by air travelers because they were seeing the system to be flawed. Airlines believe that the costs of those decisions were close to 10 billion dollars.
