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| Waiting: Passengers queue up to go through a security checkpoint at Reagan Washington National Airport. Andy Nelson – staff |
Airport lines for security even longer
The average wait took 13.77 minutes last month during peak times.
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the July 16, 2007 edition
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NEW YORK - There's an old saying in aviation: If you've seen one airport, you've seen one airport. The same can be said of their lines for security screening: They're as different as the terminal, time of day, and airport that you fly from.
But one thing remains almost the same: The peak wait times in those security lines are just as long as they were last year. In fact, they're a little bit longer.
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Despite repeated pledges from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to speed things up, the national average peak waiting time last month was 13.77 minutes – one minute and 20 seconds longer than last year's national average.
And the national average can be misleading, experts say. For instance, in Atlanta's main terminal on a Monday morning last year, the average peak waiting time was 35 to 50 minutes, according to the TSA. In Los Angeles, it was between five and 24 minutes. And whenever there's a terrorist incident abroad, such as the recent attempted bombings in London, an increase in security can slow things down here as well.
And so, getting through airport security lanes remains an unpredictable and sometimes frustrating experience for many travelers. "We're no better or worse off than we were last year," says Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, an aviation-consulting firm in Evergreen, Colo. "I guess that's good news."
Part of the problem is the season. In summer, more of the Pampers-packing and vacation set who are unfamiliar with the new security regulations take to the skies. On a given day, 60 percent of travelers are considered "leisure," which means they don't fly regularly. If those travelers prepare more before they get to the checkpoint, experts say, it could speed things along for everyone.
"Whenever there's upheaval in the terror world anywhere, it's going to have a ripple effect back here," says Dean Headley, an aviation expert at Wichita State University in Kansas. "Some people understand that, and some people don't. It's those who don't that can gum up the security lines. And it's surprising how many there are."
Indeed, the bins near security lines for rejected items are still full of large bottles of shampoo and body lotion, almost a year after the TSA ruled that carry-on luggage could not include liquids and gels in containers larger than three ounces.
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