Most airline passengers who take advantage of cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages were pleased to hear that stricter safety rules went into effect on Monday. Security concerns were heightened recently by last weeks interception of U.S. bound parcel bombs sent from Yemen.
One package with a bomb was loaded on a United Parcel Service cargo plane at East Midlands Airport, north of London. The other bomb was found hidden in a computer printer cartridge in a package at a Federal Express location in Dubai.
The new rules, called Secure Flight were first motivated by the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks but postponed by privacy issues, requires airlines to collect passengers full names, date of birth, and gender on all flight to and from U.S. airports.
The programs intent is to keep passengers on the no fly list off planes. A secondary benefit of requiring the additional information is it should stop preventing innocent passengers from flying simply because their names match terrorist names. Airlines will be unable to issue a boarding pass if the required information is incomplete.
Random passengers interviewed earlier this week at New Yorks JFK airport expressed strong support for the new rules. Passengers appear to support almost any precaution that security personnel can take to keep flying safe.
The roll out of full body scanners at U.S. airports has received a mixed reaction from travelers. Currently 65 airports are using these machines. Passengers experiencing either concerns about their personal safety in being exposed to these scanners or have privacy issues may opt for a pat-down search instead.
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