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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.
from the July 16, 2007 edition
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Another reason for longer security lines is Congress. To save money, it's capped the number of security officers that the TSA can hire, while the number of fliers is growing, albeit far more slowly than last year. Critics say this has undermined the TSA's ability to hire more people and train those they have better.
"The waits aren't the issue. It's the quality of the security," says Mr. Boyd. "We still have breaches like the one that shut down a terminal in Oakland last week and the tests – like the one they did in Denver a couple of months ago, where they found 90 percent of the screeners failed."
The TSA notes that such tests are teaching opportunities, since screeners who do fail get extra training. The TSA also puts a better face on the entire security situation. It contends it's maximizing the efficiency of the officers it does have.
"Every federal security director [who is in charge of TSA operations at each airport] in the country knows in a very specific sense when their peak wait times are," says Christopher White, a TSA spokesman. "And they're required to staff to those peak times. They're working diligently to be sure we have the right number of officers there at the right times."
The TSA also says that during the past year it has worked to extend the layers of security well beyond magnetometers and X-ray machines. There are now more behavior detection officers who are charged with observing passengers' behavior from the curb to the security lines. Other TSA teams are sent to secured areas of the airport to perform random screening of employees.
Another issue in security wait times: the airports themselves. They have a limited amount of real estate that can be dedicated to installing new security lanes and massive baggage screeners. That leaves some airports such as Los Angeles's LAX with regular security lines reaching the curb.
"That's a real security hazard," says Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition in Radnor, Pa., noting that such lines could present an opportunity for terrorists to wreak havoc.
Mr. Mitchell is an advocate of the Registered Traveler (RT) program to expedite screening for regular travelers who undergo a background check and pay a fee. He's also a consultant to FLO Corp., which stands for Fast Lane Option. It's one of the private companies working with airports to build special registered-traveler lanes.
Still, it could be two to five years before a nationwide RT program is up and operating.
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