"Security upgrades strain airports' space, budgets"

Monday, May 27, 2002

Security upgrades strain airports' space, budgets
By Barbara De Lollis
USA TODAY

 
Six months after Congress ordered better aviation security, the new
costs of compliance are jolting airport budgets around the country.

One way or another, it's likely to cost airline passengers more money.

Facing a Dec. 31 deadline to screen all passengers' checked bags with
explosives-detection equipment, airports are scrambling to overhaul
public spaces to make room for minivan-size machines, as well as longer
passenger lines and more security personnel. That's expected to cost
nearly $1 billion, but it's only Phase 1.

Billions of dollars more will be needed beyond 2002, airport directors
say, to move the machines out of public view and integrate them with the
conveyor-belt systems that carry bags between ticket counters and
airports' loading rooms - the last stop before luggage is hauled out to
planes.

To accomplish all this, airport directors are ripping out ticket
counters, rewiring electrical systems and considering adding steel and
concrete to their floors to handle tons of new weight. Some are hiring
architects and consultants to plan new buildings and redesign existing
spaces to keep lines confined indoors.

"In most airports, you don't have terminals that big, and you can't have
lines running out the door in Bozeman, Mont., in the winter," says Chip
Barclay, president of the American Association of Airport Executives
(AAAE).

The tab for the retrofitting? Up to $40 billion - more than 10 times
what's been estimated, says Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the
House aviation subcommittee.

"This is the surprise that's coming," he says.

The bills are already taking shape:

   Seattle/Tacoma airport, half finished with a $400 million renovation
of its oldest concourse, now expects to spend $50 million more to
redesign its baggage-handling system to accommodate explosives-detection
systems (EDS), each machine the size of a minivan and weighing 8 1/2
tons. The job involves ripping out some of what's already been built. 

   "This isn't a matter of pulling out 10 feet of conveyor belt and
plunking down an (explosives-detection) machine," says Gina Marie
Lindsay, the airport's director. "It requires a total redesign of how
the conveyor system works."

   Lindsay estimates it will cost another $100 million to rip out and
modify baggage systems elsewhere. The airport, which expects to receive
35 EDS machines, has deferred nearly $130 million in other improvements
that had been planned for this year to save money.

   Dallas/Fort Worth says it will cost $193 million to move
baggage-screening operations out of public view whenever it gets its
full complement of explosive-detection machines.

   Tulsa is weighing whether its terminal will need enlarging - for $17
million - to hold explosives-detection equipment and extra staff that it
expects will be needed to carry out the new requirements. 

Plans are forming amid uncertainty on many crucial questions, ranging
from how the airport construction work will be paid for to whether the
makers of explosives-detection equipment can provide enough systems for
429 airports before Dec. 31. At an AAAE meeting last week in Dallas,
nearly 4 of every 5 airport executives surveyed said the government
should postpone the deadline.

Department of Transportation officials say they're trying to do their
best to meet requirements that Congress set. Before Sept. 11, about 5%
of checked bags were scanned for explosives. Now, 35% are,
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told Congress recently. "We must
have the best security we can provide right now," says DOT spokesman
Chet Lunner. "Even if the law gave us more time, the terrorists aren't
going to operate by our time line."

Exactly what airports will have to do depends on how many and what type
of explosives-detection machines each airport gets, a decision that will
be made by the Transportation Security Administration. The minivan-size
machines, which use CT scanning technology to detect chemical explosives
inside bags, cost about $1 million apiece. Cheaper alternatives are
trace-detection systems, which identify traces of explosives on the
outside of bags. The trace systems are portable, but require more staff
to use.

The TSA says it expects airports to use a combination of both initially,
but larger airports would rely more on CT machines, while smaller ones
would use more of the trace-detection systems. Beyond this year, some
large airports hope to lean even more on explosives-detection machines.

Some airport consultants wonder if the TSA can make decisions quickly
enough to keep everything on track this year. Tulsa, for instance,
expects to require nine EDS machines but could meet the Dec. 31 deadline
if it gets six from the TSA by Nov. 1, says Ron Steinert, an airport
architect for Gensler & Associates.

But the TSA is counting on using the results of pilot projects at five
airports this year to help it decide how to allocate
explosives-detection machines, trace-detection systems and combinations
of the two among the airports. The test results might not be available
in time to help airports meet this year's deadline, says Jim Welna,
Minneapolis/St. Paul airport's public safety director.

Long-term money sought

As for funding, some members of Congress have proposed $850 million to
pay for airport construction related to the Dec. 31 deadline, but there
has been little talk of how airports will pay for longer-term projects.
Many airports have much of their money committed years in advance to pay
for runway improvements, terminal expansions and infrastructure
upgrades. Airport directors are lobbying against diverting federal
airport grants into security projects.

Congress can raise the ticket tax created after Sept. 11 to help pay for
aviation security or give airports the go-ahead to raise the local
ticket taxes that many airports now collect from travelers to help
finance construction projects.

"There is the thought that ultimately our customers - the flying public
- will pay for all this, and there's a limit to what they can afford,"
says Grand Rapids, Mich., airport director Jim Koslosky, who has urged
Congress to relax the Dec. 31 deadline for testing 100% of checked bags
to give airports time to make all security-related renovations on the
first pass.

Full domestic screening of all checked bags will exact another cost from
travelers - in time. At Las Vegas' airport, where travelers check about
63,000 bags a day, temporarily putting 16 explosives-detection machines
in the lobby is likely to lead to bigger crowds and longer waits near
the ticket counters, says deputy director Rosemary Vassiliadis.

Each person checking bags will have to accompany their bags while
they're taken 50 or 100 feet to the nearest explosives-detection
machine. That means longer lines in a limited space. Officials are
developing ways to shape the lines to contain them indoors.

"Check-in may never be the same again," Vassiliadis says.

There are plans to simplify the process. As soon as it's feasible, Las
Vegas wants to knock out the back of the terminal to move the 60
machines it ultimately expects to get from the TSA out of the public
area and integrate them with the baggage-handling system. The plan is
estimated to cost about $250 million.

Jacksonville will be the first airport whose baggage-handling system
will be integrated with a full complement of explosives-detection
equipment this year, says airport director John Clark. The TSA has named
Jacksonville a pilot site for testing an integrated system, which will
incorporate five explosives-detection machines.

The setup lets passengers check their luggage at curbside or at the
ticket counter as they would normally. They'll be summoned only if their
bag later triggers an alarm.

"We figured we'd bite the bullet early," Clark says. "Other airports are
going to pay for the modifications to put those lobby systems in place,
only to turn around and spend hundreds of millions to put in an
integrated system."

Jacksonville hired a consultant to redesign the baggage-handling system
soon after Sept. 11, when its $40 million terminal expansion was half
done. The $15 million modification, Clark says, will provide a system
that meets the new standard and keeps waiting lines to a minimum.

"If we don't get our processing time down to the TSA's goal of 10
minutes, I think we're going to lose a significant part of our
business," he says.

Another pilot site for the TSA, Grand Rapids, is in the middle of
installing explosives-detection machines in its main terminal area and
expects to be able to screen all checked bags in June. It handles about
1 million passenger boardings a year.

So far, the airport has ripped out a fifth of the area's ticket
counters, eliminating space for 12 agents. The explosives-detection
machines will consume about a third of the ticketing area, which used to
fill with passenger queues at peak times, Koslosky says.

"This is not a permanent answer," he says. "This is to meet the law that
Congress passed. We will not be particularly customer friendly with this
layout."

Koslosky is one of many airport directors and architects who believe it
will take two to four years of experience for the government to figure
out what works best, he says.

"We just put $50 million into this building to modernize it," he says,
"and now we're probably going to have to redo it all over again."


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