However, the single biggest cost of greater airline security does not involve spending money. It is the opportunity

cost of additional waiting time at the airport. According to the United States Department of Transportation (DOT),

there were 895.5 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in 2015. Since the

9/11 hijackings, security screening has become more intensive, and consequently, the procedure takes longer than

in the past. Say that, on average, each air passenger spends an extra 30 minutes in the airport per trip. Economists

commonly place a value on time to convert an opportunity cost in time into a monetary figure. Because many air

travelers are relatively high-paid business people, conservative estimates set the average price of time for air

travelers at $20 per hour. By these back-of-the-envelope calculations, the opportunity cost of delays in airports
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