(Lebanon, N.H. – January 22, 2024) Terrorist attacks in the Middle East, record number of firearms recovered at TSA security, earthquakes in Japan, war in Central Europe and worldwide airline groundings are disruptive travel events that have prompted travelers to pay more attention to their safety and security in 2024.

“Traveler uncertainty generally increases traveler demand for emergency medical and security services,” said Dan Richards, CEO of The Global Rescue Companies, the world’s leading provider of medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services, and a member of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board at the U.S. Department of Commerce. “We’ve seen a 33% increase in traveler purchases of security services in the past year, and we expect that will continue.”

“We’re seeing an understandable increase in traveler concern worldwide, but it is the most pronounced in the Middle East. Nevertheless, international trip-takers continue to gain comfort with the idea of wartime travel. We’ve seen this traveler behavior since the war in Ukraine began, and we’re seeing it even more recently following the attack on Israel,” Richards said.

The grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner following the mid-flight detachment of a portion of the plane’s fuselage has led to hundreds of flight cancellations for airlines that use fleets of the troublesome aircraft, according to news reports. Travelers worried about the safety of the planes scheduled for use during their upcoming travel can use apps like FlightRadar24 to collect information about a specific aircraft for their flight.

“You can’t kick the tires, look under the hood of the flight you’re taking, or talk to the captain of the flight,” said Harding Bush, a former Navy SEAL and associate director for security operations at Global Rescue.“ Apps like FlightRadar24 provide recent flight history and additional information like the aircraft age, when required upgrades were made and its overall safety record.”

Bush added that there are numerous studies consistently concluding that the U.S. and other developed country airlines comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization safety requirements. “That makes flights on a commercial airline much safer than driving an automobile on a highway,” he said.

Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, stringent measures to keep weapons and explosives off airplanes have almost eliminated terrorist hijackings, according to the International Center for Counterterrorism.

“But as travel volumes increase, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is advancing programs to streamline traveler processing while maintaining security, including the Screening at Speed Program that allows PreCheck passengers to conduct a self-service screening with scant help from TSA security agents,” said Adam Bardwell, a former U.S. Army Green Beret and a Global Rescue security operations supervisor.

Like a scene in the movie, Total Recall, Screening at Speed technology would “enable the scanning of walking passengers, acquiring data through most garments and reliably detecting a wider range of prohibited items regardless of concealment,” according to officials. In January 2024, PreCheck travelers using the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas will get their first chance to use the self-service screening prototype.

“If the scan-while-you-walk tech succeeds, by 2025 PreCheck travelers won’t even need to stop walking to get through security, let alone take their shoes off,” Bush said.

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For more information contact: Bill McIntyre at bmcintyre@globalrescue.com or +1 (202) 560-1195 (phone/text).

About Global Rescue

The Global Rescue Companies are the world’s leading provider of medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services to enterprises, governments and individuals. Founded in 2004, Global Rescue has exclusive relationships with the Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine Division of Special Operations and Elite Medical Group. Global Rescue provides best-in-class services that identify, monitor and respond to client medical and security crises. Global Rescue has provided medical and security support to its clients, including Fortune 500 companies, governments and academic institutions, during every globally significant crisis of the last two decades. For more information, visit www.globalrescue.com.