Airline marketing increasingly difficult

Why? Well, simply because airports saw this as the thin end of the wedge of passengers not being able to take anything on board which would collapse the whole duty-free industry, which in turn would deprive airports authorities of whacking great bundles of revenue.

Powerful perceptions

Now the problem, whether airlines like to admit it or not, is that passengers do not separate responsibility for their trips from among airlines, baggage handling companies, airports authorities and so forth. They buy their tickets from an airline and much as airlines try desperately to separate airport taxes from ticket prices, for example, passengers perceive the airlines to be responsible for the entire cost, as well as the handling of baggage, airport security, parking and, in some cases, even exorbitant charges for so-called duty-free products.

And it is no good airlines protesting that everything, barring actually flying, is beyond their control. Passenger simply will not accept that even if it is the truth.

Double standards

All of which is going to make the marketing of airlines a lot more difficult going forward because already travellers are getting more and more frustrated with what they see as double-standards in the whole airline security setup.

Why, they may well ask, does the EU intend banning liquor being brought onto flights unless it comes from the duty-free shops? Smacks of protectionism of the worst kind and the perception will be that duty-free prices, with no competition, will rocket. And surely, no matter how tight airport security might be, it would not be all that difficult for terrorists to bribe duty-free suppliers into delivering explosives among their thousands of cases of liquor delivered every day to duty-free shops. There is no way airport security can check every single bottle of Scotch.

With leaving such a big loophole, the entire exercise becomes pretty pointless.

It is hardly surprising that Ryanair has sued the UK government for its last security crack down and it would not be surprising if British Airways follows suit, having announced recently that this same security clampdown cost it R400 million.

The romance of travelling by air is waning fast because of increasing airport trauma. It's unfair that airlines have to bear the brunt, and the challenge of marketing their way out of this mess will be huge.

DIY airports

Frankly, the only way out of it seems to be if they'd all get together and establish their own airports because if the public perceives them to be responsible for airports, now they might as well get on with it and turn that perception into reality.