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 think it varied massively airport to airport and country to country. I was on a back packing flight based trip around Europe the week of 9/11, literally flew home on 10th. I had taken about 8 flights the previous few weeks. Two days before I flew home I was in Finland and security was mental, we were frisked and searched thoroughly. I had a cast on my leg after an accident and they had to scan it, fair enough. They told me to walk without crutches and I said I couldn't really but they took the crutches off me to scan them and made me walk through the arch, I literally hopped and accidentally put my injured leg down and let out a scream. I was upset by the whole thing. I wondered a few days later was there a tip off or something re what was to come but I don't think so now, I think it was possibly a local drug related issue that caused the extra precautions.

Not so big, not so rammed jammed packed, not all this digital security bull, I sat on the jump seat when a pilot friend of my aunt´s was flying for take off and landing, headset on listening to control tower. I have very fond memories of travelling in the 90s. I avoid airports like the plague now.

I had memories in the 90's in Dublin airport security checking your bags as you entered the airport, even dropping people off or collecting. But dh doesn't remember so I wonder was it only for a short while and I just happened to be at the airports loads in that time- we weee the designated airport house so did loads of airport runs for our family.

This is a really interesting thread. I remember smoking on a BA flight to Cyprus in October 98.

Swiss Army Knives were sold airside in the Duty Free at Zurich Airport!!

@Tiddlywinks63It was the same at Leeds Bradford, just wandered up a flight of steps and could watch the planes take off. Departures was through a door to the side, no major security.
In 1980 the passport office was on strike for about 9 months, and my passport renewal was stuck at Liverpool. I had to get a cardboard British Visitor’s Passport from the post office which was valid for a year. You were limited as to which countries accepted this, but EU ones did.

@SabrinaThwaite My late parents first flew Dan Air to Mallorca in 1956. They met up with their travel party on Deansgate in Manchester to go to the old Ringway airport. The plane was a twin propeller one, and stopped to refuel in Toulouse!

To be fair we had that even before Brexit, because we weren't in Schengen. I don't understand why we don't check people leaving the UK but the EU makes such a meal of checking people leaving.

There were less flights as the budget airlines weren't flying as much. Less flights so airports were quieter/smaller and security wasn't over zealous. I remember people standing up when the plane was taxiing to the stand, opening the lockers so they could be first off if they had no luggage. Cockpit doors were open on short haul so you could often see the pilots at work. I had forgotten you got a small inflight meal even on a short flight.

Thinking of flying in the 80s, early 90s, so much more relaxed. Check in, luggage weighed, someone scans your passport (usually get some thrilling foreign stamp the other side), pootle about airside for a bit trying on sunglasses, get to your gate, hop on the plane. You seemed to be allowed food, liquids, hand luggage so big it got stuck in your overhead locker. Everyone was given earphones for the 'entertainment’ which was pretty much a film or two for the whole plane, no personal choice. Also there was a three course meal as standard. Other than the smoking, which lingered a few years, it was much more civilised and certainly less stressful.

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

There are still airports around Europe where this is possible - for example Salzburg, where as well as watching the planes there are stunning views of the mountains that surround the city.

I remember working in the airport terminal in the 80s, and Lockerbie produced the immediate restriction on carrying any electrical equipment in your check in luggage.

Pre-internet so the first most people knew was when we/I/anybody advised them in the check-in queue. Happy days.

If you want to have a go on the flat escalators go to Gatwick. Tons of them 🤣

Yes - so annoying to queue to leave!

I went to the US in 1988 and remember people smoking at the back of the plane. There was also sniffer dogs in the Florida airport checking our bags. There was def also no suitcases on board - I think that’s a quite new thing with the budget airlines.

My best memory was getting a meal on a short haul flight! Always absolute crap but good because it was a novelty whistful

I think the liquids restrictions were introduced in 2006. We were on quite a long honeymoon, and having already been away for about 10 days were at the airport ready to get the flight to our next destination. We had all our toiletries in a vanity case that we were intending to take as hand luggage, but obviously were unaware of the rapid changes that had been made to security due to the shoe bomber whilst we’d been away. So we were totally perplexed once we got to security about what had happened. We had a right going on at the airport and had to go through loads of extra security and searches etc, but luckily dispensation was eventually given for us to have an extra bag in the hold. 😵‍💫🫣

Randomly, we are going back to the same place this year, to celebrate our 20th anniversary! Hopefully no dramas this time.

Have a vague memory of things changing post Lockerbie. Everything used to go in the hold then you had to take electrical items in hand luggage. I think 9-11 had a big impact on domestic flights in America

This is still a thing, DSS was in the cockpit when we returned from turkey last year, and a friends DS has also had photos taken in the cockpit with the pilot in recent years

Because of the rules around how many days you can spend in the Schengen area if you're from outside the EU.

Back in the 80s, wheeled suitcases were a new thing - wheels on one corner and a pull handle diagonally opposite. Luggage trolleys were needed in airports and I remember landing in Spain and someone would put your luggage on a trolley and wheel it to the taxi rank or the holiday company coach for a tip. Hardly anyone uses trolleys these days and spinner cases have made such a difference.

I miss the meals too, made the flight seem shorter somehow when half way through you'd get a meal. And the film with the crappy earphones that we always took with us afterwards though not sure if we were supposed to.

You're right about the year the liquids restrictions came in (2006) but those were nothing to do with the shoebomber ( that was 2001).

They were two separate plots.

It used to be a grand day out. People would go to the airport even if they weren’t flying. My mum and aunt used to take us to our local (big) airport. We’d have lunch in a silver service restaurant, look around the shops, and go to see the planes taking off and landing in the viewing gallery. It was impossibly glamorous.

Yep, Manchester got a mention higher up and there, for quite some time after what was then the new terminal opened in the early sixties, you could walk in off the street and enjoy all the facilities....

If you willing to push your luck and ignore the no-entry signs you could even breeze off down one of the piers and get to the gates themselves....

Ah ok!