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The airlines actually care about the safety of their planes, because failures have a significant impact in the marketplace. TSA staff don't care to anything lik
by scholia 10y ago
The airlines actually care about the safety of their planes, because failures have a significant impact in the marketplace. TSA staff don't care to anything like the same extent. If they screw up, they probably get more money and more power, not less.
I suspect you'd get better results if you moved the responsibility to people who care more, and away from people who care less.
Some US airports have opted out of TSA screening, including San Francisco. You could let airlines opt out or work with airport authorities instead. The best solution will probably depend to a large extent on airport layouts.
- blowski 10y agoThey would have a serious conflict of interest between getting people on the plane ASAP and checking safety. I already see this when staff are lenient with checking passports and boarding passes. On top of this, most airlines have terrible customer service, so there's no reason to believe they would provide a better service than the TSA. The TSA clearly has many faults, and nor can it take all the credit for the lack of terrorist attacks on US flights. However, it has to get some of the credit. It's wishful thinking to imagine this is a simple problem with a simple fix. If you're going to get rid of the TSA, you're going to have to convince the majority of travellers that the extra convenience is not going to come at the expense of safety.
- scholia 10y agoIt would be interesting to know how the TSA-free airports are doing. How many passengers is San Francisco losing, or gaining? Given the widespread view of the TSA's lack of competence (which has been easily demonstrated by tests), I suspect it's not losing any. > most airlines have terrible customer service It varies. I've been through lots of airline-run security checks outside the USA and they've all been fine.