How Travelling By Plane Changed After 9/11

Airline industry specialist Kevin Mitchell estimates that one-third of today’s business travelers were not in the business before September 11, 2001 and only know what the experience of flying is in a post 9/11 world.

But Mitchell, a Radnor resident, remembers well that business travel was like in the two decades that preceded the terrorist attacks that used commercial airplanes as weapons.

That day, and some threats and incidents that followed it, changed the way we travel by air. Many people take planes only when they have to, as little as once a year or less.

But, despite the communication technology of today, Mitchell says there are still plenty of people who much travel across the country and around the world for business. And they feel the post 9/11 airline industry pains the worst.

Mitchell is Founder and Chairman and Business Travel Coalition, whose mission is to “bring transparency to industry and government policies and practices so that the managed travel community can petition governments and influence issues of strategic importance to their organizations.”

Asked about how business and leisure travel has changed after 9/11, Mitchell offered some points:

• Companies have really embraced what is known as “duty of care” for their travelling employees.  “For legal, ethical and moral reasons they have plans and programs in place to be able to track employees wherever they are in the world,” he said.

• There has been a lot of financial harm to airlines, resulting in a drop off of services and customer service, which has “rained down on the whole travel experience for everybody.”

• Business travelers experience loss of productivity because they might have to leave customers’ offices earlier due to not knowing how early they have to be at an airport. Often, security procedures can take much longer than estimated.

• “These days, passengers are part of the on-board security process and they know it. Passengers know if anything occurs they need to be ready to step in and take action, and that has occurred many times between 9/11 and today.”

• Things are stricter on board, and you can’t get away with anything, he said. Flight crews are on the look out for suspicious activity, and there is less obnoxious behavior tolerated on board, he said.

• “The security process has become more intrusive and we have given up some privacy and liberty in name of greater aviation security,” said Mitchell, who called it “an open and raging debate.”

Mitchell started traveling for business around 1982, when “it was pretty laid back.” He said you could run to the airport, get there 20 minutes before takeoff and run to the gate to make the plane.

“Access was simple, there was plenty of customer service, hot meals, people were friendly,” and fewer riders meant more empty seats to stretch onto to.

Another change in the industry post 9/11 is that short haul travel (under 400 miles) has “never recovered,” he said. “People are so disgusted with travel, if there’s a possibility that they can take a train or drive they’ll do it.”

Mitchell said he has received hundreds of emails since 9/11 in which the common theme was, “Never again. I’m done,” he said.

The real issue is the lack of consistency and predictability, he said.

“Also, there’s a very strong perception that it’s a very unprofessional force … that it’s security run amuck,” Mitchell said.

But not everything can be blamed on the incidents of 9/11.

In an “alternate universe” in which there was no 9/11, Mitchell opined that the airline industry would be just as bad off as it is today.

The terrorist attack and ensuing disruptions “have forced the airlines into more disciplined approaches to things,” he said.

There might have been more bankruptcies and liquidations and travel may have been an easier process today without 9/11, but it would not be as safe.

Funny thing, Mitchell said, he believes that despite a decade passing, the best security measurements we have today were achieved in the two months following September 11, 2001:

Pilots could carry guns, cockpit doors were locked, passengers were active participants, and F-16s are on the ready across the country.

“The first immediate steps took us most of the way,’ he said.