Hello, it's Saturday the 11th of September and thanks for joining me, Simon Calder, for the latest on travel and destinations from the Green List and the travel desk of the Independent.

Today, 20 years on from 9-11, what has changed in aviation?

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Well, as many people who are perhaps over 25 or 30 will be recalling today. September the 11th, 2001 was the worst day in the history of civil aviation.

Some Boeing aircraft, which in normal times bind humanity together, were used as guided missiles to wreak mass murder on the United States.

It was, of course, a catastrophic day for the families, the loved ones of almost 3,000 people who died and their grief today is

incalculable and my thoughts are with them today. It also had some very profound effects on aviation.

Now, of course, the very onerous security checks that we go through at the

airport are designed to find anybody who's carrying a blade because that was the weapon used

in the 9-11 attacks. We've since had in 2006 the liquids were all added after a bomb block that was

foiled. And many people say, well, that's absolutely necessary. Some people say we've actually

got security all wrong and we should be looking more closely at the individual

rather than at what happens to be in their bag or their pockets. But one thing which has changed

dramatically is the fortunes of the so-called legacy airlines and the low-cost airlines.

So before 9-11,

airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, British Airways,

BMI, British Midlanders, they were,

had lots of really expansive plans.

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