A week before they were field-tested by Thanksgiving weekend travelers, expanded use of full-body screening machines and enhanced pat-down procedures were seen as an acceptable security practice by 81 percent of 934 travel professionals responding to a survey conducted by the National Business Travel Association (NBTA).


Twenty-seven percent opposed the pat-downs.

“Business travel professionals are adopting a wait-and-see attitude toward these new measures,” observed NBTA’s executive director, Mike McCormick, when results of the survey were released. “They are realistic about the threats to our aviation system and understand the TSA’s remit to protect the traveling public.  


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“However, they are also concerned about security measures that may add delays and disruptions to an already challenging travel security process,” McCormick continued. “This is why NBTA supports the new Secure Flight requirements and Global Entry program which help to narrow the window of threats. We also urge TSA to build on to these current layers of protection by reinstating a domestic registered traveler program with a security component. Taken together, these programs can allow TSA to focus on possible threats and efficiently facilitate travel.”

    Also among the findings of travelers’ attitudes in the NBTA survey:
• 54 percent of travel professionals supported the new TSA security procedures;
• 27 percent said they opposed the procedures;
• 19 percent neither supported nor opposed them.
• 67 percent of travel professionals said they felt about as safe flying under the new TSA security measures as they did a month ago.  
• 29 percent said they felt safer than they did a month ago.  
• 71 percent of travel professionals said they would be willing to pay for and undergo a one-time, in-depth security check that would enable them to pass through airport security more quickly and efficiently.  
The online survey of travel professionals in the U.S. was conducted on November 17.