The ETA's destruction of the 5-story parking garage at Madrid's airport is a great example of how to move down the supply chain in air travel to induce delays/costs/etc (and they were able to pull it off with little loss of life). In fact, a couple of months ago a reporter at TIME asked me how air travel will be targeted in the future and my answer was exactly this type of attack.
Why would this work? Pure GG logic. There would be an immediate impact on airport flow/revenue due to a lack of parking (both the direct loss and the fact that the airport would probably close down any other parking for a while). Longer term, an attack like this would force security forces to move the entrance to the airport. Slower entry, more hassles, and more security on the remaining parking available. Again, there would be a substantial impact on revenue, from the airport all the way to the entire travel industry in the city. Even one attack would be worth tens of millions in lost revenue and potentially much more.
Yup, anyone that can kill 3,000 of us using box cutters can't be all that dumb.
Posted by: goesh | January 05, 2007 at 10:34 AM