what do you suggest as a better measure of security? they already have you go through weapons detecting devices, check your bag for prohibited items, in some cases a manual search of your person or bag is conducted, you take off your shoes and put them through additional screening, they do a biometric scan where they take a nice photo of your features and get fingerprints, and you must have appropriate identification every step of the way. now you show how simple it is to blow their ’security’ out of the water, or air as the case may be, what have they got left to do? when they banned all carry-on items temporarily, they were safest, but this prevents some people from flying altogether and for them there may be no other option. dilemma of the decade, i’m sure.

Why do they need to replace it? If there isn’t a flaw in my reasoning (I’m pretty skeptical about my own argument - surely the authorities can’t be that stupid/expect civilians to be so stupid that they don’t notice the loophole), this particular security measure is totally redundant. It neither makes us safer nor more endangered: it’s just a PR display.

But, since you raise the question: I don’t think we can do anything to make air travel secure. At all. If a group of terrorists wants to do that kind of harm, they don’t need guns or knives or shower gel. They just need enough strong people willing to overpower the crew. Other forms of airport security are making plans more difficult for potential terrorists, but they’re not stopping them and I doubt that they ever will.