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[April 20, 2006]

Security lines to shrink, OIA says

(Orlando Sentinel, The (FL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 20--Orlando International Airport officials pledged $18 million Wednesday for projects to cut the time passengers spend waiting in long security lines -- a travel headache destined to heat up as the summer travel season approaches.


The decision came on the same day Transportation Security Administration Director Kip Hawley was in Orlando for the first time to talk to rank-and-file transportation security officers and push the agency's focus on vigilantly watching for explosives, what he says is aviation's greatest threat.

Hawley said the airport's moves to contract baggage handlers and build a behind-the-scenes baggage conveyor system will go a long way toward shortening lines that some days have resulted in 45-minute waits.

Ten minutes, he said, is the goal.

"If you're a customer and you show up and you want to be through the checkpoint, walking through the magnetometer -- 10 minutes. That's the standard," said Hawley, who was appointed to head the agency last July.

But that goal has to be balanced with making sure security officers have time to properly check passengers and carry-on luggage at the checkpoints, he said.

"It's very important for us with our assignment to make sure the pressure of the lines backed up doesn't affect us doing our jobs," he said. "I want our process to work well enough so it's not on the TSO's [transportation security officer's] back to make the lines move. We understand that people are upset, but take it out on us, not the TSO."

Long waits have frustrated so many people in recent months that U.S. Rep. Ric Keller, R-Orlando, complained to Hawley in a letter last month and asked for TSA to pay for a pilot program that would allow private contractors -- instead of security officers -- to load baggage into explosive-detection machines. The change would free up more officers to screen passengers.

Hawley said TSA has not finished evaluating that request.

In the meantime, airport officials decided Wednesday to spend $1.7 million per year on the program from its own coffers.

"We need to be proactive in solving this problem, and if it takes some of our money to do that, I think you saw the willingness of the board to step up and do that," said Jeffry Fuqua, chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which operates the airport.

The long waits have been attributed to low staffing levels at TSA, causing the agency to open fewer checkpoint lanes than it otherwise could at peak times. In Orlando the agency is trying to hire 150 new part-time workers.

Airlines say they also suffer the consequences of long lines, at times delaying flights if passengers are stuck at the checkpoint.

"We certainly wish that TSA could staff appropriately, but the alternative is to suffer poor customer service," said Marilee McInnis, spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, Orlando's largest carrier. "We want our customers to have the best airport experience possible. The airport is doing the best it can to make that happen."

The airport authority awarded the one-year contract to Prime Flight Aviation Services Inc., a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that also provides skycaps. The program, which will include new employees to load baggage into machines as well as help organize the checkpoint lines, is scheduled to begin May 15.

Next year the airport should begin to realize the effects of a longer-term project to speed baggage screening. By then the first phase of a complex baggage conveyor-belt system should be complete, allowing the airport to move the SUV-sized screening machines -- now near the airline ticket counters -- out of sight.

On Wednesday the authority awarded a $16.5 million contract to Colorado-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. to construct the second phase of that project, estimated to speed the screening of bags from 180 per hour to 420 per hour.

Construction is scheduled to start on the second phase next month and be complete by August 2007, benefiting Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines, West Jet and Skyservice.

Funding is still being sought for the future phases of construction.

Money for the first two phases comes from Florida Department of Transportation grants, passenger facility charges and other sources.

Beth Kassab can be reached at bkassab@orlando.com or 407-420-5448.

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