Air travel

All right, thanks, buddy.

Just ahead, an inside look at the many, many ways air travel changed in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 and continues to evolve some 25 years later.

Tom Costello is going to bring us that part of the story.

Plus, it is a defining image of the day.

Again, you need a CT scanner, the most advanced.

About 300 airports have that right now, so we'll see when they decide they might roll that out over the coming months or years, guys.

So much has changed for air travel and airports over the last 25 years.

Tom, thank you.

And this is written by Kathleen Wong and Nathan Diller, who are USA Today travel editors.

Modern air travel comes with a well-established pre-flight routine.

A traveler typically checks in via the air blinds app or at a station near the airport entrance, walks to security to present their ID, and drops their bag on the conveyor belt, removing certain items like laptops, depending on the lane.

Transportation Security Administration officers screen those while the passenger spreads their arms out mannequin-like inside a body scanner.

At the same time, to keep the skies safe, those in the aviation industry are pushing for more investment in staffing, especially to address a shortage of air traffic controllers.

There is so much human handling that goes on in security that it is so necessary, Nelson said.

A lot of things are up in the air for the future of air travel.

You are listening to a reading of today's issue of USA Today on the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service, where the time is 46 minutes after the hour.

And then if they lean back the seat, now they're in your lap.

Air travel continues to deteriorate, and airlines don't take responsibility for this.

No airline ever thinks, well, the reason he was disruptive and terrible was because we've given him absolutely no room, and we've left the plane too hot, and there are eight people in the row instead of two.

They never take responsibility, but I say that's a lot of it.

I have no memory of that.

I mean, it's minimal because I didn't do a lot of air travel when I was younger, but I definitely did.

And I remember what it was like before then.

And I remember going to the airport to like drop off family members and being able to just go all the way to the gate.

Now, we had to leave our loved ones at the TSA security areas.

Now, back to the way it was 25-plus years ago, before Osama bin Laden totally ruined air travel.

It's available at 13 US airports now, including Los Angeles International, Dallas Fort Worth International, Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City International, San Diego International, John Glenn Columbus International, Detroit Metropolitan, Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower International, Indianapolis International, Bill & Hillary Clinton International Airport in Little Rock, Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, and Eppley Airfield in Omaha.

People available, uh, eligible for this include military people, their ID will help them get into this, uh, a lot easier than people who are not in the military, those with known traveler numbers.

These airports apparently are starting about now to allow this.

Uh, a lot of airports are not on the list yet.

I think they're gonna see how it works before they allow everybody to do it, but it's a step in the direction of the pleasantness we used to have in the golden age of air travel, Joey.

Yeah.

You know, one thing I didn't miss was the end of this, but before we even went to the airport, was the fact that airplanes still suck.

Air travel still just sucks.

It's

just stupid.

A nice cup of coffee, but a very good cup.

Thank you.

But air travel just, it sucks.

And it's, I saw this from, this is the casual observer.