Is the world becoming immune to terror alerts? Despite last week’s “high terror” alert at UK and US airports following a brewing London terror plot, a poll showed that 81% of British travellers would not make a change in their travel plans.
This is good news for the airline industry, despite the story a few days ago about how some people refused to board a Monarch air flight from Manchester when they heard some fellow passengers speaking in Arabic. Then more paranoia on a transatlantic flight to New York, when a British Airways flight turned right around when someone heard a moble phone ring.
The new security measures imposed by the British government are angering not just travellers but low-cost carriers such as Ryanair who has threatened to sue if limits on hand luggage are not lifted.
Over the next month, strikes are all on the agenda for the unions, threatening to cause more havoc on UK airports. International carriers like Virgin Atlantic also expressed that they may be forced to cancel flights due to staffing problems brought about by the rigid security measures.
The bad news is that the restrictions, which include time-consuming body searches, none or see-thru hand luggage with no liquids or gels, and so on – are expected to stay in place for the long term.
I guess that means we’ll be rescheduling our family trip to the UK another 2 years.