The boss of the international air travel organisation IATA Giovanni Bisignani has called for an end to "control terrorism" at airports. He thinks body scanners and metal detectors are not only irritating, they are not an effective means to catch terrorists.

Dutch airline KLM and its merger partner Air France are also affiliated to IATA.

In the Dutch daily De Telegraaf Mr Bisignani says: "The current controls are unacceptable. We have to stop treating millions of innocent air passengers like criminals. Belts, shoes and shampoo are not the problem. We have to catch terrorists."

11 September
The ever-increasing controls of passengers since the 1970s, after the first planes were hijacked, are a source of irritation to the Italian IATA boss. Since 11 September 2001, in particular, travelling by air has become torturous for passengers, while airports and airlines spend millions every year on security measures.

Mr Bisignani says innocent air passengers should not have to wait for hours in queues and more use should be made of intelligence information.

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