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It's been almost seven years since the twin towers in New York were destroyed and nearly two years since the alleged plot to blow up planes flying out of the UK was foiled. Still, a climate of deep concern still permeates terror-afflicted air travel.
It's comforting to see that the aviation industry takes the public's safety to heart, although for the ordinary traveller things can get annoying when there seems to be too much fuss over apparently nothing.
On her way to visit Dubai, a 58-year-old mom was stopped at an airport in Europe and got her huge tub of Nutella confiscated by security. The mom had intended to give it to her son, who loves the food. An amusing anecdote at one level, but I suppose you can never be too sure.
Later, when she walked through the X-ray scanner during a stopover, a security officer got the surprise of her life when she found red and blue wires popping out of the mom's jacket. Turns out the mom was just wearing a post-surgery gadget that her doctor had prescribed to stimulate some nerve endings.
Then there's a holidaying friend who had just stepped out of a hotel in Asia. His sun-kissed face turned even redder when he reached the airport: a security guy demanded that he take off his flip-flops. Not so easy to see the danger angle there, but you never know.
Such stories abound, of course, and many have a tale to tell; it's a sign of the times. Doubtless you too, or someone you know, has complained when your newly-purchased and expensive perfume was taken away, or your hard-to-find hair product.
From a security perspective, it's still inevitable that passengers whine over the loss of everyday items they innocently put in their carry-on bags, or the humiliation they get when some stranger rifles through their private possessions.
Consequently, industry officials happily declare that air travel is much more secure than it was.
But then there's the consumer angle. No less a figure than the director general and chief executive officer of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Giovanni Bisignani, has admitted that efforts to secure airports remain "an uncoordinated mess."
Moreover, heightened airport security rings up fin-ancial costs too, not only to passengers but to airline companies and governments.
According to Bisignani, the current lack of a coordinated approach costs airlines and passengers a whopping $5.9 billion a year.
Makes you wonder whether, after all, all these measures might not be better handled to achieve their essential objective? Otherwise, it leads to the suspicion that the security fuss has mostly succeeded in lengthening airport queues, piling up checked-in bags and irritating customers.
Even though the security imperatives are not to be taken lightly - in fact, because that's so - better coordination, creating greater uniformity of treatment and apparent logic, would be very welcome. It seems the travel industry itself might just be taking note.
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