25 years after 9/11, some parts of air travel are starting to look familiar again. Here’s how much flying has changed

It’s hard to believe that 9/11 was 25 years ago today. On that day, September 11, 2001, I was a young journalist working at CNN headquarters, producing the noon newscast, when I saw the first, then the second, planes crash into the World Trade Center in real-time on the newsroom monitor. In an instant, everything about air travel in America changed. And 9/11 and has informed the way we have traveled ever since. Gone are the days when anybody could say goodbye to loved ones at the gate (although that restriction has recently begun to ease; more on that below). Also gone, for the most part: the ability to run late to a flight and enter on board a flight in half an hour. Here are a few examples of what is different between then and now. TSA airport security checks While there were security checks before September 11, 2001, they were nothing in comparison to the invasive TSA security screening checkpoints we have today. Those screening are a direct result of the forming of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was created in November 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks. Back then, there was no required REAL ID, no full-body screenings or mandatory metal dete…