Notes on Flying Within Australia

One very stark detail I wanted to note was the experience of plane travel within Australia. In America, every airport feels like Guantanamo. Every American citizen is presumed to be a terrorist the moment they enter a U.S. airport. Homeland Security staff are often rude; the airport security procedures invasive and for the most part, frivolous and ridiculous (not to mention the rules are different for each airport fiefdom); the security lines outrageously long and SLOW. As Bruce Schneier often says -- it's nothing but security theater.

Well, in Australia, none of that nonsense exists. We didn't have to take off our shoes for the x-ray scanner. We were allowed to carry on a beverage (bottled water in my case). The most striking difference was the attitude of the security staff. They were happy about their jobs, and didn't treat everyone who walked by like a presumed terrorist. I felt incredibly more relaxed going through the Australian airports than any I've been through in the U.S. Michelle ended up having a small metal nail file confiscated, but the security staff was very courteous about it. In America, we would have had a supervisor or two called over, been forced to unload our entire carry-on contents (maybe in case we had -- gasp! -- another nail file!), and pretty much been made to feel miserable about the oversight.

The experiences I've had in American airports made me not want to take a trip by plane at all if I could avoid it. I could give a shit about being a victim of a terrorist attack. What bothered me more was enduring the miserable experience at the hands of security rookies each and every time I went through an airport in the States. We would have taken far more trips around the country if it weren't for that. As it happened, though, we took nearly none and just spent most of our vacation time locally.

At first, I was worried that the airport experience would be similar here. But now that I've seen that the airport security staff is so much more professional here, and the atmosphere much more relaxing for travelers -- I look forward to taking lots of plane trips to see as much of Australia as possible.