Delta CEO criticizes move allowing small knives on airplanes

Delta CEO criticizes move allowing small knives on airplanes
By Greg Botelho, CNN
updated 9:36 PM EST, Fri March 8, 2013


This presentation outlines changes to the Transportation Security Administration's prohibited items list. Some small knives will be allowed in carry-on luggage starting in April. This presentation outlines changes to the Transportation Security Administration's prohibited items list. Some small knives will be allowed in carry-on


(CNN) -- Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson said Friday he objects to the federal Transportation Security Administration's move this week to allow small pocketknives on airplanes.

"These items have been banned for more than 11 years and will add little value to the customer security process flow in relation to the additional risk for our cabin staff and customers," Anderson said in a letter to the head of the TSA.

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Former flight attendant Tiffany Hawk is "stupefied" by the move, "especially since the process that turns checkpoints into maddening logjams -- removing shoes, liquids and computers -- remains unchanged," she wrote in an opinion column for CNN.

And Veda Shook, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said the move is "completely unnecessary" and "makes no sense." Rather than freeing up time, she predicted that security officers will get more bogged down testing and measuring the knives to see if they meet the criteria.

"How big is this knife? is it long enough? is it wide enough? Does it lock? Does it not lock? That is going to create confusion at the checkpoint," Shook told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Friday night. "... We're all better off, and we're all safer, without weapons on board the aircraft."

The Delta chief is among those critical voices, saying that he and his airline's flight attendants "share (the same) legitimate concerns."

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http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/08/travel/tsa-knives/index.html