Customer Relations
Aer Lingus
Dublin Airport
Co. Dublin
Ireland


Re: Dangerous and undignified airport security

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have travelled with Aer Lingus numerous times over the past ten years and have rarely been anything but very satisfied with my travel experiences on board as well as before and after flying.

I�ve recently had to move to England for work, and of course will want to get back to Ireland on a regular basis, and up until last year, my first and only port of call for this journey would have been aerlingus.com. In the same way, I�ve never flown transatlantic with any other airline, and hadn�t had any reason to change that habit.

Unfortunately, I do have to change. Why is this? Because the airports I�d have to use to make my journey have chosen to install millimetre wave scanners and/or back-scatter X-ray scanners at their security checkpoints. These scanners, as you may know, are used instead of or in addition to the traditional walk-through metal detectors. The metal detectors, in conjunction with baggage x-ray, have proved eminently successful in Ireland and other countries at preventing onboard terrorism incidents.

The problem is twofold. There is limited if any scientific evidence that the scanners are safe to go through on a regular basis. It is common knowledge that x-rays are harmful, and little is known about the safety of millimetre waves. Those studies that have taken place work on the assumption that the systems are properly installed and maintained, which in a world of cutbacks is surely not an assumption we should stake our health on. Secondly, the images that the scanners produce (you can see samples on the website www.dontscan.me as well as many other sites) leave little to the imagination. If a minor was scanned I should think the image would count as pornographic. Plus, there is in many cases no control over how long the images are stored for, or anything to prevent the security agent reproducing it on a mobile phone calendar or similar device.

While some airports allow selected passengers to opt not to be scanned (although not those in the United Kingdom), this is often at the cost of a highly intimate frisk search which would be just about tolerable in a maximum-security prison.

As a result, I have serious reservations about travelling from any airport where these devices are installed, and once I have flown my existing bookings I will have to think long and hard about whether I am able to risk making a new booking where my dignity and health are put at risk.

The scanners operate at London Heathrow, London Gatwick, and Manchester airports, and are shortly to be installed in Birmingham. So now, to fly from London I need to choose Stansted, Luton, or City airports, none of which, regrettably, have an Aer Lingus service. Similarly, as all the airports served by Aer Lingus in the USA operate the scanners, I will be forced to use different airlines� services should I choose to travel there.

I am disappointed to have to cut down my use of your services, but I know that through the aviation industry, if not directly, you have contact with many government officials. I do not know how frequently you receive letters like this, but if it is regular, then perhaps in the interest of protecting your revenue you may wish to use those contacts to ensure that the health and dignity of passengers are not sacrificed in order to create the illusion of better airport security � let�s not forget that there has not yet been any confirmed detection in the UK by the scanners of any dangerous device which would not have been found by traditional security methods.

Yours sincerely,

stifle

^^

Thank you for taking the time to write.

Me, too. Please xpost this beauty in the "Sample Letters" thread if you would:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...irlines-7.html

This is what I got out of this... I prefer your service, I only fly out of these airports (because of AIT), and you don't fly out of these airports, so I'm not going to use your service. Get back to me when you change the situation.

That'll work, for a while... until all airports have AIT.

Perhaps, perhaps not. Sending the letter cannot make anything worse (unless you count my time writing it and the cost of the stamp), but may increase the chance of AIT being stalled or reversed due to industry pressure.

(And I am still going to use EI when I can, which will include to fly back from ORK-LHR/LGW, having flown STN/ORK by FR or used land transport.)

I got a holding letter from EI yesterday saying they had received my letter and would respond when they could.

Your letter is brilliant.

Good work!

I had a non-reply from EI today saying "we are sorry, but we have no control over security measures at airports; we have forwarded your letter to our airport managers at LHR/LGW/MAN".

Thankfully I have learned (since sending the letter) that LGW South Terminal is safe for now, so I don't have to say "hello FR" just yet.