‘Islamophobia Airlines’ To Compete With El Al On Security

It costs less to implement the ethnic filter than to employ personnel who must interact with every single passenger.

Tel Aviv, November 22 – Heightened tensions in recent weeks over Islamic terrorism has air travelers opting for carriers with greater security wherever possible, making Israel’s flag carrier El Al poised to take advantage of the climate, as it enjoys a reputation as the world’s safest airline. However, a new upstart company aims to go El Al one better by playing specifically on the fear of Islamic terrorism, hoping to capitalize on increased American and European unease over sharing a flight with people of Middle Eastern appearance. Islamophobia Airlines is scheduled to offer its first flights at the end of the month, offering trips between New York and Paris, New York and London, and New York and Brussels.

While aviation security experts have long touted El Al’s multi-layer approach to security, which includes extensive passenger profiling, Islamophobia Airlines plans to adopt an even stricter standard, and will not grant boarding privileges to anyone with an Arabic-sounding last name, swarthy looks, or citizenship in any country between Morocco and Indonesia, other than Israel. It will also exclude anyone in traditional Islamic dress, or anything easily mistaken for it. In so doing, Islamophobia Airlines will compete with El Al for transatlantic passengers, though not on flights that go directly to or from Tel Aviv.

If all goes well, says Islamophobia Airlines CEO Getta Gripp, the carrier will expand service to destinations within the continental US by next summer. “We know that the Transportation Security Administration here in the US goes to great lengths to help protect airline passengers,” she said, “but it remains clear that many people would prefer some extra security, and we provide that by eliminating a priori an entire demographic that has proved especially problematic in terms of air travel safety in the last 45-50 years. No offense to the creators and users of technology – and of course we will avail ourselves of the most advanced equipment – but the human factor is the most important one i n protecting our passengers, and that is where we will have an advantage.”

Gripp explained that whereas El Al relies on passenger profiling primarily in the behavioral realm, insisting that every passenger be interviewed individually by personnel at the airport before check-in, Islamophobia Airlines will depend mostly on profiling through individual characteristics. “A skilled terrorist will be able to handle behavioral profiling without arousing undue suspicion,” she said. “What we’re doing is preventing an entire class of people more likely to be terrorists from getting to that point.” It costs less, she said, to implement the ethnic filter than to employ personnel who must interact with every single passenger.

“That savings will be passed on to the customer,” said Gripp. “Also, the first thousand tickets purchased will each come with a ‘Trump 2016’ bumper sticker.”