Toward safer skies
Aviation security has improved since 9/11 but not by enough
Old designs. A less obvious, but no less troublesome, challenge is the layout of American airports; most were designed to let people move quickly and freely. When Tampa International Airport opened in 1971, for instance, planners wanted to keep walking distances from car to plane at under 700 feet. So a parking lot was put on the terminal's roof. "That's great for passengers and horrible for security," says Evan Futterman, chairman of aviation services at design firm HNTB. Tampa didn't close the lot, but now it runs vehicle inspections there.
But what really makes airport managers wince are those SUV-size baggage-screening machines in ticket-counter areas. These areas were the only spaces large enough to quickly install the CAT-scan-like equipment and thus meet deadlines to screen checked luggage for explosives. But the subsequent congestion in lobbies has created new hazards, says Tampa airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan. So now, the push is for "in-line" baggage systems that put the machines behind the scenes to work with baggage conveyor belts. But the construction necessary to do that is complex. "If you looked at the diagram, it would give you a headache," says Jimmy Wooten, the TSA's federal security director at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The automated webs will increase reliability, but only 17 airports, including Dallas and Tampa, will have them by 2006. The problem is money--it would cost up to $5 billion to install one in every U.S. airport, yet lawmakers have allocated only $1.5 billion since 9/11. The Bush administration has requested $250 million for such projects in 2005. This is "a perfect example of where the federal government cannot afford to be penny-wise and pound foolish," says Charles Barclay, president of the American Association of Airport Executives.
In fact, money is a never-ending issue when it comes to aviation security. That will become clear over the next few weeks as lawmakers "trip over each other" to act on the 9/11 commission's aviation security ideas before Election Day, says Cressey. A bipartisan group of congressional heavyweights recently introduced a 280-page measure that builds on several of the panel's suggestions, including a traveler screening program that spans all modes of transportation and a completed biometric entry-exit system for foreign travelers. The staff of the 9/11 commission has released more than 90 additional recommendations, and the TSA's Stone vows to issue a long-sought comprehensive plan for aviation security by the end of the year. But all these ideas will be expensive, not just for the government but for strapped air carriers as well. They are balking at the $3.8 billion they say they spend each year for security costs. James May, who heads up the Air Transport Association, says the government should foot the bill as part of its homeland security expenses. But that idea is, well, up in the air.
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