Way back in the old days, it was possible to walk to the gate with a loved one and have a good-bye kiss there, but modern security at airports makes that pretty much impossible—unless you buy a ticket for a flight,.
But a Singapore man found out recently that even that won’t work, at least in Singapore, where transit areas of the airport are designated ‘protected places’ where people “should only be there for the purpose of travelling to their next destinations.”
The 27-year-old man in question was charged under the Infrastructure Protection Act, which carries fines and jail terms. Police noted that “Investigations revealed that the man had entered the transit area to send off his wife. He had no intention to depart Singapore.”
Although U.S. security rules don’t specifically bar buying a ticket to get in, it’s certainly not common. On the other hand, some U.S. airports, including Pittsburgh, have begun selling passes to go through the security lines, mainly because it provides access to the shopping malls within.
Image: Singapore Airport Police in a lighter mood
