The recent arrest in Britain have led to ever increasing restrictions on carry-on luggage, with liquids and possible liquid and gel containers being banned. Air travel has been transformed from a cheap and useful form of transportation to a massively time consuming and inconvenient form of travel. It does not have to be that way.

The increased restrictions on carry on material since the arrests of terror suspects in the United Kingdom place even greater inconvenience on airline travellers.

Already lines are long, laptops have to be taken out of their bags, shoes removed and anything metal placed in plastic containers. Despite the efforts to improve the process, airports are faced with long lines of travellers waiting to be checked.

There are also regular warnings to come to the airport several hours before hand - as much as three hours before. As a consequence this makes simple puddle hopping flights become major time consumers and probably best done with a rental car.

Airline travel became very cheap over the last twenty years and was used heavily in that time. The attacks of September 11th in the United States have led to increased security and processing levels of travellers all round the world.

I recall in Frankfurt having to go through six checkpoints. Three German and then three more American. At the end of it all I was annoyed. The common refrain is that they are keeping me safe, but it isn't true.

In terms of risk assumption driving a car, smoking , taking the wrong medical prescription or having unnecessary surgery; are all far more dangerous than terrorism. Worse, I drive every day - often several times.

With the hijackings on September 11th the dynamic between passenger and hijacker changed. Rather than an aircraft being flown to Libya and money being demanded, it took three suicide flights to determine that any hijacked plane would now result in death.

The fourth flight of September 11th quickly and spontaneously organised on that information, charging the hijackers and foiling their plot to crash into the White House.

This is citizen activism.

Any flight now carries this dynamic and knowledge. Anyone who plays up on the flight, if not taken out by the stewards, will be taken out by the passengers themselves.

Putting an Air Marshall on the aircraft and locking the doors of the aircrew cabin are far more effective to that end than all the screening that goes on.

To stop bombs the luggage needs to be screened with better technology, not more and more restrictive laws on carry-on material. These should be passive and unobtrusive as well. Rather than the clunky "put your laptop and shoes on the conveyor belt".

In a passive environment the suspicious persons and luggage can be called aside for more scrutiny as well as random checks for purely arbitrary reasons.

This will have the effect of increasing the flow through of passengers without the long lines and inconvenience of having to turn up several hours before the flight.

This will also allow the security staff to focus on genuine issues, suspicious passengers and uncertain luggage. Rather than casting all with the same inefficient and time consuming net.

Air travel is a very cheap and convenient form of transportation. Its utility should not be destroyed because of political posturing, government over-handedness or an irrational belief in the threat of terrorism.