[mmaldacker]

>Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left

This still exists, for example Tegel airport in Berlin. Also, in the 70s there was waaaaaay less traffic in airports so it is simply not a fair comparison.

>Sadly, I bet the way we'll end up equalizing this will be that somebody will eventually bomb a TGV and we'll have to start doing the two hour confiscate-your-kids'-apple-juice routine at the train station too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Madrid_train_bombings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings

[rwmj]

Internal flights in Japan are basically turn-up-and-go (and cheap too), and have only a little security.

[jusben1369]

So that's fascinating. Having no expertise whatsoever on the topic of domestic Japanese transportation my immediate response is "Strong competition from fast rail means that air travel is a superior experience"

It breaks my heart we don't have fast rail in the US. Even if it was just the North Eastern corridor (extended maybe to Chicago and Atlanta) it would have a huge impact on air travel. Of course the cost and final date to roll this out means it's probably not worth buying into.

[vmarsy]

Texas has a project of a high speed train between Houston and Dallas, it would link the 2 cities in 90mn (instead of 3:30h of driving, or 70mn of plane. So if you spend more 20mn more at the airport than at the rail station , the train would be faster. http://texascentral.com/the-facts/

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/T...

It's a privately own project, supposedly ready in 2021.

[alanho]

you can even bring your own bottled drinks/liquid on Japan domestic flights. they have a machine specifically for "scanning" drink/liquid. put your bottle on it, green light, then off you go. not sure how it works

[easytiger]

Something like:

    num_checks += 1                                                                                                                                                                                         
    if num_checks % 200000 == 0:                                                                                                                                                                            
        red_light()                                                                                                                                                                                         
    else:                                                                                                                                                                                                   
        green_light()

[kissickas]

There's a UK company in talks with the DoD on rolling these out for military use, and I'm sure they will expand to civilian airports eventually. I'm not sure if this is the same company, but they're doing the same thing: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/02/scanner-anal...

[goodcanadian]

Almost certainly a spectral analyzer. Shine a light through it, see what the chemical signature is.

[colanderman]

That certainly won't work for my aluminum water bottle. Granted, neither do X-rays, and yet I've never had it even questioned going through security.

[goodcanadian]

Yes, I was assuming a typical disposable transparent plastic or glass bottle. I have not seen the machine in question, so I am guessing, but it would be very easy to implement and cover the majority of cases.

[rwmj]

I think we're assuming here that this machine isn't merely security theatre.

[practicalpants]

I wasn't even asked to show my ID the last time I flew domestically in Japan.

[TillE]

Tegel is fairly unique because each gate has its own security checkpoint. It's definitely a bit less stressful.

[derf_]

I found it more stressful. The biggest place where delays are caused at an airport is at security, so when I arrive at an airport, this is the first thing I want to take care of, and cannot relax until I've passed through it.

To be told I cannot go through security until a few moments before the flight departs (because it is not even open, or the gate not even assigned) means that anything that does go wrong will cause me to miss my flight.

Not to mention the expense of having screening apparatus at every gate seems a little inefficient. It means everyone on the flight tries to cram through the one line at the same time, whereas if it were in advance, it could be spread out in time and over more lines.

[apendleton]

Amsterdam Schiphol is like this, too, and yeah, it's great. I think for them it's because they're going for this combination airport/mall/mini-city vibe, and there are enough amenities that they want it to be attractive as a destination, even for people not flying, so they want to keep as much of the airport outside of security as possible.