GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV)-- In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, drastic changes were made to the way we fly.

Flying a decade ago, was a relatively easy and laid back process. You didn't have to get to the airport especially early, you didn't have to worry about what was in your checked and carry-on luggage.

September 11, 2001, changed all of  that. Austin Straubel airport director Tom Miller remembers that moment well and what came after.

"The eeriest day was the day following, the 12th, there were no airplanes moving anywhere," said Miller.

In the days after 9/11 commercial planes didn't fly and when they finally did, it was completely different atmosphere at the airport.

"There were federal agents brought in and TSA was formed we had air national guard people walking around the building with m16's, humvees parked out front," said Miller.

Things were like that until April of 2002. Shortly after that the TSA -which was created in the wake of 9/11, started operating on a larger scale.

The screening process now much more advanced, and thorough. Before you didn't have to take your shoes or your coat off, you could bring liquids in your carryon luggage, and your checked luggage wasn't screened for explosives.

After 9/11, Americans were looking for these extra security measures according to Lucy Arendt, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.

"Before people didn't really think about what might happen," said Arndt, " 9/11 was obviously a pretty jarring event so then people were looking for more security measures to take.

Arndt adds that 9/11 also changed the way people looked at the other passengers on the plane, a feeling that still lingers today.

"Yes people are still suspicious as a function of the way they look I think. It's hard, it would be impossible for the American people not to do that," Arndt said.

The extra security measures have come at an extra cost, but Miller said it's hard to pin point that number.

"On,  9/11 we lost some of the freedom we had in the past. By now having to submit ourselves to a more intense security, but that is for our own safety and security," Miller said.

At Austin Straubel security efforts will be ramped up even more. Miller said by the end of the year they will be getting full body scanners.

Though Miller said these ones will be generic body images, as opposed to the ones that screen your body image.