Not sure if this has already been posted, if it has, I apologise.

Sydney Morning Herald article

I seriously doubt that the plastic knifes is really adding anything to security.

For those that believe that this is a really making the skies safer they surely don't see the irony in the glass bottles of alcoholic beverages that is for sale in virtually all airplanes?

As much as I detest Amanda Vanstone, I agree with her on this one - and for a member of the Cabinet in Australia to come out with this, surely that has to have some weight around the world, after all, it is not as if she is some loopy back-bencher, she is a CABINET member after all, a part of the inner circle of ministers, and Australia is supposed to have some standing, aren't we?

Dave

Not really, if the FAA says no then that's what goes...

interestingly enough, metal knifes are allowed on all european flights that are not US Bound.

The FAA does NOT disallow metal airline cutlery. Metal knives have been Ok on USA-bound flights for over two years. It's been the UK and the Aussies that have been slow to revise their rules. The UK relented in April of this year (metal cutlery allowed 25April, 2005) and apparently the Australian government is finally coming around.

I think the plastic cutlery �security� issue is one that the US airlines actually embrace and support as it saves them money in not having to handle, wash and replace metal cutlery.
Just as ID checks help the airlines in preventing trading and misuse of tickets.
Two examples of practices that have increased since 9/11 that have nothing to do with security but everything to do with revenue protection.

That doesn't make sense, if this would be true how come they are still using metal forks?
The incremental costs of adding the knife to be washed with the fork and spoon is relatively minor vs. scrapping using metal utensils at all. While i haven't run the numbers, i find it hard to believe that there is economic value in substituting the knife only and not all the utensils.

Also, it doesn't explain why the european airlines (Scandinavian, Air France etc) all use all-metal utensils on all flights except the US bound flights where they use plastic knifes but metal forks and spoons.

This doesn't add up.

I have no idea what cutlery is used by various European airlines on their flights, but none of that changes the fact that metal forks, spoons and knives have been allowed on flights to/from (and within) the USA for over two years. Perhaps those airlines use metal knives that are sharper or pointier than the typical blunt and dull domestic USA airline knives. Some USA-airlines have been using their metal knives for quite some time (NW and CO? are two that come to mind).

At the time the TSA relaxed the knife restriction to allow blunt, dull airline knives, we discussed the change here on Flyertalk. I'm too lazy to do a search, but it pre-dated the existence of this particular forum. Newstand is probably where the threads are located.

Take a hop on a DL domestic FC flight.
It's all plastic, all the time.

Same on every AA flight systemwide. All plastic, all the time.

And it has nothing to do with the TSA or FAA. All about $$$.

That's exactly right.
It may have started as a security measure instigated by the TSA but the airlines enthusiastically embraced it when they found out how much money could be saved.