One thing I recall clearly and that will likely be repeated now, is that every country, and even every airport had their own set of rules after 9/11. The US had the strongest new security rules at the beginning, then Europe followed, but many airports in Asia and Africa did not introduce any new security rules for over a year until the US government forced them to by threatening to block flights to the US. In Africa, it was only flights to the UK that eventually added extra security and airports like NBO added a second security checkpoint for BA flights. But AF, LH, etc did not. I probably hit over 50 airports around the world during that time and would be hard pressed to name two airports that had the same rules. LAX was different than BOS which was different than MIA, etc. And BKK was one example that did not add any extra security. Scissors and box cutters were fine. This was the case for quite a while even though most Asian airports had non-stop flights to the US. Then when Asian airports began to add security rules, I found that as a white guy in a suit flying business class, those rules did not apply to me for the first year or so.

And while yes it there are flew flights now and few people even wanting to fly, that too was the case after flights resumed in 2001. A whole lot of people were too afraid to fly. And businesses pushed people to use conference calls instead of flying. Then there was the big economic effect on US airlines. The big airlines dropped a lot of routes because they were hemorrhaging money. I recall I used to fly from So Cal to San Jose a lot back then and AA and UA dropped many of those flights. Some were picked up by LV, but it took a long time for that business to return. I have never been an LCC flyer, but I did a lot of LV in 2002/2003, mostly between BUR and SJC. I had no other choice.

One other thing for the people who can afford it. I flew private a lot in 2002/2003, mainly between LA and Las Vegas. The reason was the security lines at LAX T1 (which had LV and HP) and LAS were horrific. If airports introduce draconian measures here in 2020 maybe they will experience super long lines again. That will lead more people to fly private.

Another thing we experienced back then was constant changing of rules and the application of rules at individual airports and onboard different airlines. I might guess that will happen again, especially as we will be learning more about this virus every week and month for the coming year or more. So maybe there is no point in speculating now what the rules will be when they open. No one knows for sure now. And I'l bet those rules all change a month or so later.

Any finally, while it was clear that a lot of people were afraid to fly, still a lot of us did not willfully change a single thing about our travel patterns. That will repeat itself here I am sure.