THEN AND NOW: Vintage photos show how airports have changed

Customers awaited their flights in the check-in area at Heathrow Airport in London in 1978.

CLEAR, founded in 2010, uses fingerprints and eye scans to validate travelers' identities. TSA PreCheck, which allows passengers to keep their laptops and liquids in their bags and keep their shoes and light jackets on, was first introduced in 2013.

Passengers lined up at the check-in counters at Gatwick Airport in 1966.

Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Thailand is flooded with natural light.

Two women received help at a Continental Airlines counter at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minneapolis in 1981.

A passenger used Alitalia self-service check-in kiosks at Milan Malpensa Airport in 2017.

A passenger received his boarding passes for a flight to Vail, Colorado, at Los Angeles International Airport in 1997.

An airport worker held an iPhone over a scanner at Miami International Airport in 2015. It's one of many hacks to get through the airport faster.

Passengers waited in line at the security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 1996.

Members of the Utah Air National Guard's 151st Security Forces Squadron stood guard days after September 11, 2001, as an added security measure at the Salt Lake City International Airport.

Travelers waiting and resting before boarding the Skytrain at Gatwick Airport in 1977 looked to chalkboards for flight information.

An arrival sign at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel in 2011 showed an array of arrivals and departures.

Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways, sang along with employees of Virgin Atlantic Airways in 2000 at the opening of his new clubhouse at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.

Chase opened two new airport lounges in New York's LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2024.

This bar was located at Heston Aerodrome, an airfield just west of London that was in operation from 1929 to 1947.

The Toronto Pearson International Airport is one of many airports where passengers can order food on tablets.

Two "air hostesses" were photographed on an airport runway circa 1950.

Flight attendants posed in 2012 in Berlin at the christening of the Airbus A380.

Travelers looked hip in sunglasses and mod gear at Heathrow Airport in London in 1972.

Passengers at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago waiting in line to be screened in 2016 didn't dress up for the occasion.

An air traffic controller at Harrisburg's Capital City Airport monitored a newly installed radar system in 1979.

Air traffic controllers kept watch using Data Comm, which supplements voice communication between controllers and pilots with digital text-based messages, in 2017.

Eastern Airlines debuted a new anti-hijacking device, a type three Friskem detector, in 1971.

An airline passenger went through a full-body scan at O'Hare Airport in Chicago in 2010.

Travelers slept as they awaited the departure of their flights at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport in 1981.

A passenger slept while waiting for a flight at the Sochi Airport following the 2014 Winter Olympics.

American Airlines gate agent supervisors helped passengers who were scheduled to depart on a canceled flight to Las Vegas from Chicago in 1993 in Chicago, at O'Hare International Airport.

A woman talked on her cell phone with an agent as she stood in line after her flight was delayed at Washington's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in 2016.

Swedish screen actor Ingrid Bergman and her husband, Lars Schmidt, discussed the merits of a brooch in the gift shop at Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1959.

Duty-free shops at Frankfurt International Airport in 2013 would look at home in a shopping center.

Architect Radu Gidei previously told Business Insider that airports are designed to make a profit with lots of shopping between gates, not for efficiency.