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?

I remember the liquids well. Now DH and I had headed straight to the airport from a concert (so young) so arrived and checked in about 2am. Got a bit of sleep on the benches, when I woke up and went to the loo I heard people complaining about security but didn’t think much of it. But we gradually noticed that we were the only people with hand luggage - everyone else had a clear plastic bag with their passport and wallet - literally everything else had to be checked.

we were on one of the first flights out of Gatwick and left about 3 hours late but we’re lucky to get away at all. The cabin crew had no idea what was going on and couldn’t understand the lack of hand luggage.

flying before that was so easy!

Knives of all sizes are supposed to be banned, though small scissors are allowed. And razor blades you can replace are banned, but not cartridge ones (I think because it's not that hard to turn a replaceable razor blade into a shiv, but that's much harder to do with cartridge blades).

Not during the flight, but we were delayed on the ground last year and they offered any children that wanted to could go see the cockpit.

The change I remember most was the first Iraq war in 1990 I think? We turned up at the airport to find military and police carrying machine guns. It was terrifying.
Before that I had only ever seen armed police at Greek airports.

I’ve no idea. I think it was being phased out but still allowed. I remember my mum freaking out because our seats were non smoking and she couldn’t go without a cigarette for a 3 hour flight and the attendants wouldn’t let her in the smoking area. Just done a quick google and the cardboard passports were phased out in the 90s. It was literally a cardboard passport with mine and my sisters photos stuck on.

There was smoking and non smoking sections. You got a meal included even on a shortish flight and there were often tvs and headphones

Kids didn’t need their own passports if travelling with parents. I was just a line in the back of my parents passports.

Ooh yes I remember flying back from Spain in 1987ish, sitting facing the back of the plane. So weird!

You could go in to see the cockpit if you were a kid.
kids movies were sometimes shown at the front of the plane so all the kids could sit on the floor in the wider bit of aisle.
You could smoke in the back third of the plane.
most people got their own passports at about 9 or 10
You all shared a big screen and weirdly unsuitable films were shown after the meal.
Planes stopped to refuel and you could get out if you liked to stretch your legs in the terminal.
it was really smelly on board like stale cardboard.

Smoking in the departure lounge.

Flat escalators that seemed to go for miles, now we have to all walk at 100mph to join the next queue.

Proper duty free.

Up on the roof at Newcastle & Edinburgh Airport watching your relative arriving/taking off.

It just seemed quieter too (in the 80's!), no super cheap flights kept the drunk shouting stag do type folk away.

I don't mind the queue for security but I hate the Border Control queue leaving Europe back to the UK. Thanks Brexit....

I used to be able to take my knitting on a plane.

I used to fly domestic pre 9/11 and security could be strict- I had tweezers taken off of me as they could be a weapon, although the bottle of vodka was ok! Also had to play my Walkman to prove it was real.

However, got free booze and a lovely scone and clotted cream on BA.

This is a really interesting thread x

I flew a lot pre 9-11 with work and security was pretty much the same. Check in, bags scanned, boarding pass.

carry on luggage was less of a thing, only cabin crew had the small wheeled bags. You just took your handbag.

america was much different though. Domestic very little security, you could rock up and just take the next available seat to your destination. More like getting a bus than a plane.

uk we had had decades of IRA terrorism so our security measures were pretty much in place. It was a huge surprise to the USA when they experienced it. Which is why they lost so many emergency service personnel. We evacuate the whole area and wait for the second attack. They’d never had anything like it so treated it like an accident/fire and all rushed in or told to stay put and wait for help.

You still can, I take wooden interchangeable ones (more modern circular cable style). The more traditional style 'under your arm' pins might be trickier though although I did see a lady knitting on them once coming back from Turkey.

I always add a lifeline to the project before hand though just in case I need to pull it off the needles if security is a tad over zealous.

I remember the passports you could go to the post office to get, they lasted a year if I remember correctly. I remember flying Oasis Airlines from Glasgow to Gran Canaria around 1988/89 and there was smoking sections on the plane. Most planes you were allowed to smoke on back then, I remember getting off and being so glad of fresh air.

I think I only took one flight before then, I was about 11 so only vaguely remember it. I think there was still luggage security though because of Lockerbie.

I do remember my dad had a pump for an airbed in a case which looked funny on the X-ray machine, so the security guy asked my dad what it was, in Spanish, which he doesn't speak, so he mimed pressing the plunger of a pump and said "Pump....Poompa? For air bed - you know - um - to blow up?" and then suddenly realised what he'd said and looked absolutely horrified and quickly opened it up and got it all out to show them it was just an air pump I probably only remember this because he dined out on the story for years as he had visions of being led away in handcuffs. It was the first time he'd taken us abroad without my mum, and my stepmum was a nervous flier.

The thing that surprises me most about that flight now was that we were served a meal, even though it was a really short flight just to Spain.

Home Alone and Die Hard 2 both came out a little after Lockerbie but I think both depict security beforehand from memory 🤔

I was 5 when Lockerbie happened and 17 when 9/11 happened - don’t remember the laidback days. Would have loved to go in the cockpit while in the air!

Someone tried to make a bomb with liquid it was in the heels of his shoes I think. That’s why you have to take your shoes off sometimes.

Are you serious? Did hoodies exist??? No. No they didn't. We still dressed in sabre tooth tiger skins.

In 1991 I got on an Aeroflot plane for a Florida family holiday. It was refuelling in Shannon between Moscow and Miami. As passengers from Ireland boarded, some of the Russian women wearing massive fur coats started kicking off, pointing in our direction, clearly demanding to be moved away out of economy. They were quickly upgraded. My mum was appalled even though she had no idea what they were saying and my dad thought it was hilarious.

I remember getting my first passport and being really excited to show it at passport control and my mum bloody forgot it! Luckily I was still on her passport but I was really upset about it.

We mostly flew Finnair and drinks were free. I'd get through so many mini cans of coke and fanta in a 3 hour flight! And they gave out decent activity packs to children. Once we were delayed waiting for some late passengers and the flight attendent must have felt sorry for us because she gave me and my brother a pack of cards to play with.

In regards to visiting the cockpit, my ex sil posted photos on Facebook a couple of years ago from the cockpit during flight (one during landing as you could see the runway approach) and I'm wondering if she got a crew member to take the pictures for her or if she was actually in the cockpit (brother was the pilot)

Lockerbie happened in 1988 so security wasn’t entirely lax pre 911. In fact I’d say security ramped up after Lockerbie, naturally. For a while you had to take your shoes off if you had a certain tyoe of sole.

As for flying pre Lockerbie I can’t remember but there’s always been strict security.

IIRC the US was a lot more lax with internal flights and treated them almost like buses.

It depends what country you are going to. Blades aren't allowed if you are flying back from China. I know this as my tiny pocket penknife which has been on many flights was confiscated there.