What were airports like pre 9 11?

[Ninapertree]

I'm in the airport getting a flight and its taking ages. Ages through the security queue. Then i got patted down. Ages through the boarding queue.

My mum said "do you remember the old days before 9 11, when airports were much easier to get through".

I cant remember. I was 16 when 9 11 happened and I think i only flew a few times before 9 11. I asked my mum and she cant remember specificially but she remembers it being easier and quicker to get through.

What were they like back then. I'm interested. Was security different?

In 1996 I flew to New York and took a bottle of champagne with me - it wouldn’t fit in my hand luggage so I just carried it in my hand 😱

What airline was this? 1990 and smoking allowed on board and with a cardboard passport?

Sometimes it is - we were stuck on the tarmac in Italy in 2019 and children were invited in to the cockpit. I remember it because Rachel Stirling and her DC were behind us in the queue (Elbow had just played the Lucca festival).

I remember my parents taking us to plane watch on the balcony of the departure lounge at Bristol airport and Heathrow. You just parked, walked in and wandered around, no security whatsoever. This was in the 50’s and early’60’s.
Flying in the early ‘70’s you turned up an hour or so before takeoff, went through luggage check in, no restrictions other than a maximum weight, and ‘security’ (where they often just waved you straight through, no checks).
My passport had very few stamps from the ‘60’s to when it expired on my 70th birthday, very disappointing really! I did treasure the Leningrad ones from 1977.
You could smoke onboard, visit the cockpit and chat to the pilot. The first time the DCs flew in mid ‘80’s both of them were allowed in the cockpit.

There was a big security ramp up after Lockerbie, so it wasn’t a huge shift really, post 9:11. The liquids rule made a difference though, can’t remember what year that started but it was some years after 9:11. I flew to the US in the mid 90s and there were a lot of security checks then.

Carry-on bags were x-rayed and you had to go through a scanner. But that was about it. You could see people off at the gate and meet them as they deplaned for domestic flights. In many places you didn’t need to show ID unless flying internationally. I flew all over the world, including to and within the US many times before 9/11 and don’t recall being scared of the security, unlike a PP.

Nowadays the rules and restrictions are mostly security theatre.

The cardboard passport would have been a 1yr passport, I was 18 in 1990 and had one to go away with my friends for the first time

Every flight used to allow smoking on board! It was the seats at the back of the cabin and there was always a grey fug of smoke as soon as the no smoking sign went off.

Also remember the card 1 year British visitors passport that you could get for trips to Europe - you got them from the Post Office.

In 1990? I was 10 then and don’t remember cabins full of smoke!

In about 1980 I recall running fast thru a large airport (? LaGuardia?) with my family to get a domestic flight which we barely made. Maybe 10 minutes from entering building to reaching the gate. We had woken late after my parents had been drinking :). If our bags got x-rayed at all, that happened right at the gate.

I only lived in UK since early 1990s & have done at least average 2 international flights per year since. To me the big changes in last 25 yrs are also about fluids & shoes.

when they installed the security at the gates, we suddenly found ourselves with no toilets post security screening at our airport. There were also no shops or services of any kind, but the toilets were the real issue. It was a nightmare that saw port a potties, then a single toilet for 100s of people, until finally just last year they finally built a new airport.

Yup. Lucky you. BA didn’t fully ban smoking on flights until the late 90s.

I went into the cockpit to talk to the pilots mid flight. That was almost encouraged!

I remember one place had such poor security people were able to just walk onto the runway from before the security gates.

Smoking. But because they were at the back of the plane it was ok.

Less luggage constraints.

Free earphones and you were expected to use them!

People made an effort. Not dressed up but they wouldnt be there in manky tracksuit bottoms and flip flops. No one would be pratting about with face masks. There was a certain level of decorum.

Everyone got a proper meal. The most we ever did was fly to Spain cattle class and still got a 3 course meal with metal cutlery.

Wow so late!

I think these days you can go to the cockpit if if the plane is grounded, but not when it’s in the air. I remember as a kid (early 90’s) on a night flight and being invited to the cockpit - I can still vividly remember the lights and buttons and the view from above, it was absolutely magical.
I was 16 when 9/11 happened, don’t remember a huge amount of the airport procedures pre the changes but I was another one on my mums passport for years, no photo! And I also remember smoking areas on planes. So weird looking back.

Are you a part of the McAllister family?! 😂

Jet2 invited children into the cockpit last summer. It was the first time since I was a child I’d seen it happen. We were flying to Bristol from Greece.

I remember flying Dan Air in the 1980s and we had a group of four seats, two seats facing the other two seats with a table between us (like you get on trains). Very strange looking back now.

Security was very quick but you had to queue up to check-in with your ticket and be given a boarding pass.

I only really remembered flying in the 90s from the UK to Europe. I do remember smoking on planes as I had fairly bad asthma as a kid and my mum would always point out that the air circulation system just spread the smoke from being heavier at the back to being more dispersed right to the front of the plane.

Remember going through security scanners and beeping when I was about 12 or 13 and feeling ready to die when I got patted down.

Don't remember anybody being able to go to the gate who wasn't flying or them being able to meet you at the office luggage carousel or before customs. Maybe that was just Manchester

Wow were you in the air at the time?! I presumed that the flight door had to stay locked at all times while flying so I’ll
take back my previous post!

I flew a lot in the 1980s

there was almost always security but it was far more relaxed. However there were significantly less numbers travelling so queues weren’t anywhere near as long.

it was the liquids rule that made things really stressful but I think that is finally on its way out

I flew to NY a few weeks after 9/11-
there wasn't any noticeable extra security then. But a lot more angst.

It’s allowed while the plane is on the ground, as I was surprised to discover when we were stuck on the tarmac last time I flew. The cockpit door was open so I took the kids to look from the doorway, and the pilot said they could come in and let them sit in the seat and wear his cap. He said they have to lock the door when they’re in the air.

Flying to / from Israel in the 90s involved a lot of security - seem to remember X-ray machines at the gate (maybe even at the plane door?) as a final check on hand luggage. I didn’t have a great experience either time I flew.

Pp are right, it was Lockerbie that ramped it up, and then the liquids rule in the late noughties.

pre Lockerbie there was no check that owners of baggage checked in actually made it on to the plane