Just let passengers be armed. Lets see 1 hijacker versus 200 armed passengers. Yeah I like those odds.
Have all the passengers waiting to board a plane assemble at the gate. Tell them all to mingle for five minutes and talk to each other. At the end of the five minutes have the passengers fill out a card listing any passengers they think need “enhanced screening”.
This would be 100% effective, much faster and less costly than the current policy. It would also give the passengers a feeling that they have a role in their own security.