Y'know...

...if I were a terrorist mastermind, I wouldn't even be trying to blow shit up anymore.

I'd just find me some suckers, plant the notion in their heads of some sort of cockamie way they could maybe aspire to blow something up, (smuggling liquid explosives on board, for example) and... wait for it... leak word of the plot to the police so that there could be a big bust in the news...

...followed by dumb-assed panicky regulations that make air travel even more onerous for thousands of people than it is now.

I'd damage a crucial part of American infrastructure (the airline industry), promote panic amongst the public, and force Western governments to spend millions of dollars they can't afford -- all without ever having to actually engage any of the "security" that money was buying.

I'd even be saving myself some dough: those one-way cash airline tickets and flying lessons ain't cheap, after all.