No One Said Security Comes Cheap

by Daniel Pipes
Fri, 18 Aug 2006
updated Tue, 29 Aug 2006

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The thwarted London plot has prompted discussion of importing El Al's security methods to the West, writes Peter Robison for Bloomberg in "Israeli-Style Air Security, Costly and Intrusive, May Head West."

That word "costly" in the title is not an exaggeration. El Al Chairman Israel Borovich estimates "El Al's security bill at $100 million a year, which amounts to $76.92 per trip by its 1.3 million passengers. Half is paid by the Israeli government. By contrast, the TSA spent $4.58 billion on aviation security, or just $6.21 per trip by 737 million passengers, in fiscal 2005."

Doing the math, that's a difference of $70.71 per passenger. Or, the Israeli security costs more than twelve times as much as the American version. (August 18, 2006)

Related Topics: Counter-terrorism

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Reader comments on this weblog entry

Title	By	Date
Problems in Italy [143 words]	Paolo di lautreamont	Nov 29, 2006 13:34
Security at Tel Aviv [34 words]	Allen Higginbotham	Aug 31, 2006 13:55
both necessary and useless [44 words]	em	Aug 31, 2006 13:31
Airport Security [w/response] [27 words]	Jack Winnett	Aug 31, 2006 10:35
↔ Correction [21 words]	Yehuda Kleiner	Sep 1, 2006 13:10
↔ Economies of Scale [w/response] [56 words]	Jack Winnett	Sep 2, 2006 14:29
↔ Airport Security [42 words]	Jack Winnett	Sep 3, 2006 12:55

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