Travelers Applaud Air Safety Measures

Even as President Bush signs legislation that places airport baggage screening under the control of the government, a new survey from Yahoo Inc. and J.D. Power and Associates shows that such a measure is exactly what travelers want to feel safer in the air.

Congress gave final approval to the compromise measure on Friday, assuring that Bush could sign it in time for this week’s Thanksgiving Day holiday, normally the busiest travel season of the year.

The survey, which shows that last week’s crash of Flight 587 in Queens, N.Y., did not dramatically reduce confidence in air travel, found that being “afraid to fly” is still the most often-cited reason for curtailing air travel plans, with nearly 50 percent of leisure travelers mentioning it as their No. 1 reason.

One-third of business travelers cited either economic conditions or company restrictions on air travel as their top reasons for not flying.

“The highly publicized recent stories of security lapses have greatly reduced the public’s opinion of private airport security companies,” said Michael Taylor, director of travel services at J.D. Power. “The public also feels stronger that a search of checked baggage is necessary for airport security.”

The new legislation requires the federal government to hire about 28,000 airport baggage screeners within a year — effectively putting private airport security companies out of business. Screeners will have to be U.S. citizens and will be barred from striking. The bill aims for 100 percent bag inspection and widespread explosive detection systems.

The Yahoo!-Power survey found that among those who have traveled within the past three months, 62 percent said they are “already comfortable” with air travel, despite the incidents of Sept. 11 and last week’s crash.

The public opinion poll was conducted among random visitors to Yahoo’s Web site the week of Nov. 12.

Meanwhile, a national online poll conducted by MapQuest shows that more than 34 million Americans are planning to travel over Thanksgiving, and more than 88 percent of them are traveling by car. Nearly 60 percent are going at least 300 miles.

In anticipation of the heavy traffic, most people are departing for their destinations on Tuesday and returning home on Saturday, the survey found.

The survey found that 51 percent of those polled are using the Internet to research or plan their Thanksgiving or holiday trips, and 13 percent are checking on flight cancellations or changes online.

If you’re planning on driving, be aware that you can expect more than 10,600 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states to crack down on violations of seat belt and drunk driving laws, according to a Reuters report. And with airport checkpoints confiscating anything from knitting needles to tweezers, travel experts advise those who are flying to leave in plenty of time to snake through security lines.