I had a few interesting thoughts recently while traveling. We all know that there are a lot of hassles associated with air travel, and my mind kind of began wandering, wondering why we're putting up with all of this nonsense. Is it really necessary? And is all air travel going to be like this (or worse) from now into the unforeseeable future? (I sure hope not, it already takes forever to get on a plane, let's hope it doesn't get worse.)
Now I'm not going to pretend to have any sort of answers to the problem, but I have had a few "what if" scenarios come to mind.
So let's think about this... we've got tighter security to protect from potential terrorist attacks, right? And if that's the case, why are commercial airlines such valuable targets? Are smaller planes targets? It doesn't seem so, as the security at smaller airports isn't anywhere near as stringent. Terrorists try to inflict the most damage with the smallest amount of effort, and bigger planes make that easier to do, that's all.
It's the big planes they are after, right? So what would happen (hypothetically) if everybody started flying on small planes? Would the threat of terrorism in or via aircraft go away? I don't know, but it's interesting to think about.
This also begs the thought, why do we fly on big planes so much? It's all about efficiency, isn't it? It's cheaper to fly a big plane than it is to fly many smaller planes carrying the same number of people. But is it? With the added costs of higher security, are the airlines, and we as customers, actually saving any money? I have no idea, but it does make you wonder.
Anyway, just a thought I had. None of us like the security hassles of flying, and it kind of makes you wonder whether it is really necessary or not.
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