Some screenings may be on the way out

Random security screening of people boarding planes could be phased out next year as Transportation Security Administration chief James Loy tries to make air travel less burdensome. Each passenger will still have to go through security checkpoints, but the additional random checks are about to end.

TSA officials say that as better-paid, better-trained federal workers take over at airport security checkpoints, there is less need for an additional level of security at the gate. The deadline for all commercial airports to have the new federal screeners in place is Nov. 19. It is a deadline that may not be met.

A spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents major airlines, said the random checks are unnecessary. More sophisticated baggage and passenger screening, which is increasing with the passage of every month, is making random screening at the gate less critical in thwarting would-be problems.

One can only hope that TSA officials are headed in the right direction. For years, and especially since Sept. 11 of last year, our airline security efforts have been closer to hapless than a model of effectiveness.

The gold standard for airline security is that run by the Israelis. A former chief of the Israeli air travel security effort recently commented that the United States doesn't have a system of security. Instead, he said, we have a system of harassment.

Anyone who travels by air has had occasion to reflect on the truth of this remark as we watch great-grandmothers -- and, on occastion, a former president and a former vice president -- pulled over to be wanded a second or third time and forced to remove their shoes so that they can be thoroughly inspected.

The TSA has plenty of work to do in restoring a scheme of true security in air travel.