The chairman of British Airways has attacked "completely redundant" airport checks and said the UK should stop "kowtowing" to US demands for increased security.
Martin Broughton, speaking at the annual conference of the UK Airport Operators Association in London, said people should not be forced to take off their shoes and have their laptops checked separately in security lines.
He also said there was no need to "kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done", especially when this involved checks the US did not impose on its own domestic routes.
The US stepped up security in January in the wake of an alleged bomb plot. It introduced tougher screening rules, including body pat-down searches and carry-on baggage checks, for passengers arriving from 14 nations which the authorities consider a security risk. Passengers from any foreign country also face random checks.
Mr Broughton - who is also chairman of Liverpool Football Club - said: "America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do. We shouldn't stand for that. We should say, 'We'll only do things which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential'."
In the comments quoted in the Financial Times, he said that no-one wanted weak security, but added: "We all know there's quite a number of elements in the security programme which are completely redundant and they should be sorted out."
These included the requirement to remove footwear, brought in after British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid hid explosives in his shoes on a transatlantic flight in 2001, as well as inconsistent approaches to laptops and other equipment.
Mr Broughton said: "Take the iPad, they still haven't decided if it is a laptop or it isn't a laptop. So some airports think you should take it out and some think you shouldn't."
British Airports Authority chief executive Colin Matthews told the programme: "What we do in security in Heathrow and other airports is defined by the authorities and it's really one requirement laid on top of another. We could certainly do a better job for customers if we can rationalise them.
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"There are some aspects which have been frustrating to everyone, but equally everyone understands we have to keep the passenger safe."
