Airport security screening - A delay too far?

Apart from television programmes about redesigning your home, suggesting you can turn a modest semi-D into something that might be seen in an architectural magazine’s centre-spread, few activities freely undertaken threaten the harmony of long-standing relationships.

The prospect of a few hours spent between an airport carpark and your seat on the plane — the one that promises to take you off on a longed-for, faraway holiday.

Airports have become a new hell and yesterday’s announcement from Aer Lingus that long-haul passengers travelling through Dublin Airport should arrive at the airport at least three hours before flight time will strengthen that impression.

Unavoidable, essential and increasingly rigorous security screening is turning what once was a minor joy into a real ordeal.

This will inevitably have an impact on tourism but if it reduces the disastrous impact air travel has on climate stability, then it is not entirely a bad thing.

All of a sudden a staycation seems even more appealling.