US airport security weighs major changes 25 years after 9/11

**US airport security considers major changes 25 years after 9/11**

American airports were transformed after 9/11, but new policy shifts are now bringing back some travel habits that had been banned for 25 years.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it will soon let people without tickets go through security and accompany loved ones to airport gates.

TSA is also weighing whether some US passengers should be allowed to carry full water bottles through security, which would undo a rule introduced after a foiled 2006 terror plot.

An aviation expert told the BBC that these changes amount to some of the biggest aviation security shifts in decades and are likely the result of better technology rather than weaker standards.

The first people to benefit will be Americans enrolled in TSA PreCheck or those with a known traveller number. These travellers already undergo a pre-clearance process with the US government to get faster screening at US airports.

People with TSA PreCheck who want to visit an airport gate without a ticket can apply online one to three days before their planned trip.

This week, TSA said the Gateside TSA PreCheck programme will be available at 13 airports across the US.

“This new program makes it easier to return to the gate for welcomes and send-offs, meet friends during a layover, and enjoy dining and shopping along the way, bringing back the moments that once defined air travel,” TSA wrote on its website.

Jeff Price, an aviation security expert and professor at Metro State University Denver, told the BBC that the post-9/11 change was designed to reduce the number of people security officers had to screen.

“It keeps the lines moving and allows us to focus more on the traveling passenger,” he said.

He added that technology improvements now make it possible to change those policies.

Along with bringing back gate visitors, the Trump administration is also considering letting TSA PreCheck passengers carry water through airport security, according to US media reports.

That would reverse a ban imposed after attempted terrorist attacks in the UK in 2006, when people planned to smuggle liquid chemical mixtures in soft drink and sports drink bottles.

The BBC asked TSA to confirm the reported change, but TSA did not respond.

Price said newer security machines TSA is installing to replace conventional X-ray machines have computed tomography capabilities, which “can do a much better job of detecting liquid-based explosives”.

These changes to security rules come after TSA last year ended the requirement for passengers to remove their shoes during screening, a widely disliked policy that had been in place for two decades.

Social media reaction to the announcements was mixed. Some older users who remember life before these rules welcomed a return to normal, while younger users wondered whether the changes meant safety was being reduced.

“People have a nostalgia for a pre 9/11, it's a calling back to a normal world, and I can see that part of it,” Price said. “I can see people wanting to get back to something that they feel more comfortable with, which was a pre 9/11 world.”

Still, Price said the changes will not affect passenger safety as long as core security measures stay in place and standards remain high.

“I don't want to compromise [valid security measures] simply for a nostalgic feeling before 9/11,” he said. “I don't think we should make those types of decisions so that we feel better. We can make those types of decisions as long as the security measures are not compromised, and that's always what I look for in these situations.”