Before Sept. 11, 2001, going to an airport in the United States was a breeze. You could show up less than an hour before your departure and have your family accompany you right up to the gate.
But after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, airport security has never been the same. The hijackings of four commercial jetliners that day led to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which established the Transportation Security Administration and requires more rigorous screening and all checked baggage to be screened by X-rays. Now, on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, most fliers are used to long delays through TSA and having their identity checked multiple times before boarding.
But it didn’t use to be like that. “When I teach my history of aviation course, I now have students who weren’t born on 9/11, and they’re stunned,” said Janet Bednarek, an urban history professor at the University of Dayton and a former historian with the United States Air Force. “They can’t believe how things were before 9/11.”
Here’s a walk back through history on the most dramatic differences between airport travel in the U.S. before 2001 and now.
There were no long airport security lines.
