"South Carolina airport working out new safety precautions"

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Airport working out new safety precautions 
The Asheville (SC) Citizen-Times


ASHEVILLE - Finding a parking space at Asheville Regional Airport could
become easier this week but some visitors will have to be prepared for
quick inspections of their vehicles under changes airport officials
discussed Monday.

Traffic immediately in front of the airport terminal would be shifted to
a point about 75 feet to the east of the building into what used to be
the airport's short-term parking lot under the plan worked out with the
Federal Aviation Administration, said airport Director Mike Armour.

That area has been closed since Sept. 11 due to security concerns
related to terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. The
airport lost the use of about two-thirds of the 972 spaces that had been
available to the public as a result of an FAA directive that spaces
within 300 feet of terminals be blocked off as a means of preventing
bomb attacks.

Planned measures would restore 192 of the 656 spaces the airport lost
after Sept. 11, Armour said after outlining the plan at an Asheville
Regional Airport Authority meeting. The airport has also moved employee
parking away from the terminal, freeing up some spaces for the public.

Airport public safety officers have maintained a checkpoint near the
airport entrance since Sept. 11. They will be replaced by employees of a
security firm who will do brief searches of large vehicles to be sure
they are not carrying bombs, said James Lynch, head of the public safety
force.

Armour said the new measures to be implemented sometime in the next few
days will stay in effect for the foreseeable future.

He said it is hard to tell whether the new arrangements will provide
enough parking for airport visitors during busy times in part because it
is difficult to predict how many people will fly following the attacks.

None of the airlines serving Asheville Regional have announced any
reductions in flights to or from the airport yet, Armour said, although
they have cut service elsewhere. US Airways has canceled some Asheville
flights on a spot basis, he said, but has made no permanent alterations
to its timetable.

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