How did 9/11 Effect Air Travel Internationally?

Katherine Flanigan, Emily Cassidy, & Adam Beard


Mr. Wojo

Honors Human Geography

September 8th 2010

How did 9/11 Effect Air Travel Internationally?

The attacks on September 11th had a major effect on the international air travel of the United States. Not only did this affect United States air travel though, it also affected air travel in other countries between the United States. The terrorist attack scared many people and even more so that the United States was not exactly prepared for this drastic of an attack. The country had to rethink everything from security, to new procedures that would be taken if this was to occur again. September 11th affected the air travel money income and the trust people had of the airlines. If a terrorist could board and take over more than one plane, what could stop it from happening again?

The number in plane passengers was a steep drop in the year 2001. It took years to build back the same number of flyers from pre-9/11 because people were wary of other attacks and the safety and security of the plane. People used other means of transportation around the time frame of September 11th and others refused to travel anywhere, out of caution. Thus less money was spent on air tickets throughout the world. With less money spent on flights, air travel companies began to suffer.

Security was also an important issue after 9/11. Passports were looked at in a more detailed way, to make sure no one was using a fake passport to gain access into the country. A list of wanted terrorists was sent out to airports so that if one of them were spotted at an airport, they would be unable to board a plane. The events of September eleventh and a bombing of a plane in Boston started the process of taking off your shoes when going through airport security. This then makes sure you are not hiding any items in your shoes.

Procedures had to be stepped up several notches to ensure that passengers of the plane were going to be safe. But, there was still the concern of planes flying into the United States that were not American airlines. There would be no way to improve the security of airports in other countries though some airlines did use the events of 9/11 to make sure that their own air transportation was not at risk. If only the United States improved their security then it wouldn’t matter when the security of a foreign airline was not careful of their passengers. Secret security members were placed on planes in order to maintain disruption if needed. This person is incognito to the passengers but not to the pilot or air staff.

After the 911 terrorist attacks, international flights flying into the United States greatly declined. Modern technology in airline flights has improved so now pilots can communicate with the control offices to see if something hazardous in the skies. Airlines now have state of the art radar so they can see any incoming objects. Also, there is a main control unit that will track every airline flight in the United States at a given time to be more careful. After these attacks, less money was spent on airline tickets and security fees for people flying internationally. The GDP of the United States also fell towards the end of 2001. That says that more and more airline flights have stopped coming into the United States during that year. There are even more airplanes being designed to withstand terrorist attacks. More and more flights were being missed, cancelled, or being rescheduled to a later date. This resulted in more people shifting their scheduled flights to another location to avoid coming into the United States.

 

• http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/briefing/

This is a picture of all the air travel that was going on during the attacks on September 11th and every single one of the planes had to be grounded.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/120335-domestic-air-travel-lowest-since-post-9-11

This is a graph that shows the amount of international air travel before September 11th and the amount after September 11th. The dramatic drop in international flights caused many airlines to let employees go because they could no longer afford to pay all of the employees.

Bibliography:



"Aftermath of the September 11 Attacks." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_the_September_11_attacks#Economic_aftermath>.



"Air Traffic - NextGen Briefing." FAA: Home. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. <http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/briefing/>.



2013, By. "Travel Facts and Statistics
U.S. Travel Association." U.S. Travel Association. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. <http://www.ustravel.org/news/press-kit/travel-facts-and-statistics>.



The Economic Effects of 9/11 Rep. No. RL31617 (2002). Print.