The TSA has started a campaign to answer a lot of the “Why” questions that they get from travelers and has produced a series of videos.

Here’s the idea:

It is a national effort to build awareness about checkpoint security procedures so that passengers will be better prepared for airport travel. The campaign is committed to communicating why certain procedures and requirements are part of airport security. The goal is to improve security by compelling airline passengers to be better prepared for the security processes, resulting in less frustration and a more positive experience.

This video explains why TSA asks passengers to show photo ID before entering airport security checkpoints. The bottom line, no we won’t take you word for who you are. No, nor a note from your mother.

This video explains why TSA asks all passengers to remove their shoes during the security screening process. The bottom line is that there was this one crazy guy who tried to light a shoe bomb and so you all now should wear slip on shoes.

This video explains why TSA limits passengers to three ounces of liquid or less in their carry-on baggage. The bottom line is that we would rather that if you carry liquids that blow up that you only have them in small amounts or at least have to pour them all together. It’s all about making you feel safer.

With more than 700 million travelers passing through airport security checkpoints yearly, TSA recently began introducing changes to passenger screening at the checkpoints to improve security, and enhance passenger and officer experience. These changes include: calming the checkpoint environment to improve security, deployment of enhanced technology and improved checkpoint signage at airports to help passengers learn the “why” behind what TSA does and self-selected lanes for passengers (like Family Lanes and Black Diamond Lanes for biz travelers). Because of these changes it has become increasingly important to get the public to focus on what they need to do to get through the security checkpoints before they travel.

Visit www.tsa.gov to learn more about the TSA’s “Why” campaign.

Just in time for Thanksgiving travel the TSA launched a program on November 20th to provide a special security lane, a “green lane”, for families traveling with children.

At the same time the TSA has relaxed the liquid restrictions for medically necessary liquids.

The lanes, part of TSA’s Diamond Self-Select program currently at 48 airports, allow families, individuals unfamiliar with air travel procedures and travelers with special needs to go through security at their own pace. Individuals carrying medically necessary liquids, aerosols and gels in excess of three ounces will also be directed to these popular lanes. Individuals traveling with liquids, gels and aerosols within 3-1-1 limits will experience no change to their screening procedures.

Individuals traveling with medically necessary liquids, gels and aerosols like baby formula, insulin, cough syrup, contact lens solution and prescription medications will undergo additional screening that will usually take less than two minutes to ensure these items do not pose a threat.

My wife is still waiting for them to relax the liquid restrictions for fashion necessary liquids like hair mousse.

If travel makes you nervous already then you probably should not read the following story.

TSA tests scanners to measure anxiety

Newspaper accounts are using words like “Orwellian” and “the stuff of science-fiction nightmare” to describe a new kind of technology being tested by the Homeland Security Department and Transportation Security Administration. The technology would use an array of scanners at security checkpoints that could detect all kinds of readings from individual who pass through them – measuring their heart rate, body temperature and breathing speed to look for unusually high levels of anxiety. Anyone who displays such symptoms presumably would be pulled out of line for additional scrutiny and questioning.

I could relate to this story since my last trip would best be categorized as religious voluntourism.

Religion to help nation’s tourism industry

The travel industry is always searching for new markets and new products. Ecotourism took off in the 1990s. More recently, “voluntourism,” which combines vacation travel with volunteer work at the destination, has become popular. Currently, one of the fastest growing segments of the industry is religious tourism, which includes pilgrimages, short-term missionary work, monastic retreats, faith-based camps, and visiting sites of religious significance. TJ contributor Steven Crook investigates Taiwan’s potential to become a destination for international religious tourists.

This story says that brits hate Ryanair… it does not say they don’t fly on it.

Ryanair voted least favourite airline for third year running

British travellers have voted Ryanair their least favourite airline for the third year in a row in a TripAdvisor poll.

Of the 450 Brits questioned, 30% voted the low-cost airline as their least favourite.

Ryanair is not content to be hated just by the residence of Great Britain.

Ryanair boss sets sights on no-frills transatlantic flights with new airline

Passengers could be taking budget flights between the US and Europe on a Ryanair-backed airline in less than three years, the low-cost carrier’s chief executive claimed yesterday.

Friends don’t let friends fly drunk… or stupid.

‘Drunk’ man aboard Turkish Airlines flight claimed to have bomb

A drunken man claiming to have a bomb tried to hijack a Russian-bound Turkish Airlines plane on Wednesday but was quickly overpowered by fellow passengers, officials said.

Please keep your voices down when the pilot turns on the no talking sign.

Passenger to pay for airline noise

Flight passengers are likely to be charged for the noises airplanes make. The government is pushing for a bill containing such plans to secure resources to build soundproof facilities for residents near the airport area who are suffering noise pollution, but critics say the government is offloading its responsibility on passengers, who are already paying the fuel surcharge for soaring oil prices.

When I was walking into the airport security in Las Vegas last weekend, this video that was playing caught my attention. It is both informative and entertaining as you learn how to pass through security in Las Vegas style. Blue Man group, magicians, clowns, celebrities and celebrity impersonators show you how it is done.

A while back I wrote an article analyzing the finances of online travel agency YTB. My conclusion was that it was better to be YTB than someone who is building a travel agency based on them. It all smelled a bit. Apparently I am not the only one who reached that conclusion as they were just sued by California’s Attorney General as a Ponzi scheme.

Brown Sues To Topple Online Pyramid Scheme

California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a lawsuit against YourTravelBiz.com for operating a “gigantic pyramid scheme” that recruited tens of thousands of members with deceptive claims that members could earn huge sums of money through its online travel agencies.

Wireless culture taking to the air

Delta Air Lines announced Tuesday that it will introduce Wi-Fi access on certain aircraft by fall and expand it to its entire domestic fleet of more than 330 planes by next summer. American Airlines and Virgin America previously have said they will launch in-flight broadband Internet services on certain planes by year-end.

TSA to allow laptops to stay in approved bags

There’s a new option for people annoyed at having to take their laptops out of their bags at airport security. The Transportation Security Administration will now allow travelers to leave their computers inside “checkpoint friendly” cases.

Airline industry axes 60m seats

The global airline industry will fly 60m fewer seats in the run-up to Christmas - equivalent to a 7% cut in flights - as the oil spike and economic downturn force carriers to axe services.

Kayak and American Airlines are having a bit of a tif:

Kayak.com drops American Airlines airfares from listings

American Airlines telling you that it will no longer be displaying airfares on Kayak.com or sister site Sidestep.com.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner explained the company’s tiff with Kayak. The airline asked the meta-search engine to bar American ticket purchases through online travel agencies such as Orbitz.com or Cheaptickets.com. As of today, American’s airfares were not available on Kayak.com but flight schedules were still listed.

and in the expected follow up story:

Kayak.com drops American Airlines airfares from listings

American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner explained the company’s tiff with Kayak. The airline asked the meta-search engine to bar American ticket purchases through online travel agencies such as Orbitz.com or Cheaptickets.com. As of today, American’s airfares were not available on Kayak.com but flight schedules were still listed.

American Airline sues parent of Kayak.com and Sidestep.com

Fort Worth-based American Airlines is suing the parent of meta-search sites Kayak.com and Sidestep.com, saying the Web sites violated its agreement to use the airline’s airfare content.

At issue is whether the sites were allowed to display American fares through third-party sites, including orbtiz.com and cheaptickets.com — where the carrier must pay booking fees — rather than just on www.aa.com.

After Beheading, Greyhound Kills Ad Campaign

Yes, the company offering famously lousy service had just launched an ad campaign with the line “There’s a reason you’ve never heard of ‘bus rage’” when, on a trip from Alberta to Winnipeg, one of its passengers was apparently beheaded and eaten. Suffice to say, they’re doing away with the campaign

and in the strangest piece of news, the conspiracies around the murder that happened at the Olympics:

An American tourist is murdered, and conspiracy theories abound

What would make you stab a 62-year-old tourist to death in the middle of the day and then leap off a 150-foot tower? That’s a question you can’t help puzzling over if you’re in Beijing. What on earth was going on in the mind of Tang Yongming, the 47-year-old man who stabbed two Americans and their Chinese guide over the weekend? Todd Bachman, the father-in-law of the U.S. men’s volleyball coach, was killed in the attack.