So far, complaints of heavy-handed security regulations with no apparent security benefit have drawn only disinterested yawns from most US lawmakers. However... a significant loss of revenue to US passenger airlines MAY get their attention.

The Associated Press reports that over the next few weeks, thousands of crates of Washington State cherries will be loaded as cargo onto passenger flights leaving the west coast of the US for markets in Pacific Rim countries. Growers use passenger planes because ships are too slow, and cargo-only flights are not seen as frequent or reliable enough.

But in 2007, Congress passed a law requiring the phase-in of cargo inspections for all airline flights, including international ones. Now that implementation is reaching wide-body planes used for Trans-Pacific service, some growers are talking about using planes originating north of the US border in Canada.

The US Transportation Security Administration says the screening process will be fast, and that avoiding disruptions to commerce is a priority. The test will come in the next few weeks.

Sylvia Scherer, a customs broker for Universal Freight Forwarders in Tukwila, Washington, matter-of-factly tells AP, quote - "We work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get the cherries moving during harvest...We'll do what we have to do to move the freight and either meet the regulations or avoid them."

FMI: www.tsa.gov