"Wait! Airport delays not mainly caused by security"

Saturday, September 13, 2003

Wait! Airport delays not mainly caused by security
By Howard Dicus
Pacific Business News (HI)


Passenger discontent with security lines at airports is waning, and most
U.S. airline passengers say they spend more time waiting at ticket counters
than they do in security checkpoint lines, according to a new survey by the
federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. 
  
If borne out by further research, this survey of more than 1,000 households
suggests that the main delays at airports are caused by insufficient
personnel at check-in counters, a frequent complaint of fliers in the summer
of 2000, the last booming summer for airline traffic before a slumping
economy and 9/11 changed the industry forever. 

The BTS survey concludes that the average security wait is 14 minutes but
the average check-in counter wait is 22 minutes. 

Behind those average numbers are these details: 

Fully 55 percent of respondents said they waited less than 15 minutes in
security lines; 40 percent reported waits of 15 to 30 minutes; 5 percent
said their waits were even longer than that. 

Only 37 percent said they waited less than 15 minutes in the check-in line,
while 47 percent reported waits of 15 to 30 minutes and 16 percent said they
were in line more than 30 minutes. 

Hawaii experiences can vary. Honolulu is considered one of the nation's most
sensitive security airports for international flights, and security line
waits often run well into that 15- to 30-minute window described above. But
most local fliers complain more about very lengthy waits in check-in lines
for interisland flights. 

The mainland survey finds most fliers are getting use to this: 51 percent
described their security waits as "about what I expected"; 38 percent said
less than expected and 11 percent said more than expected. 

On the issue of whether security screening is sufficient, 82 percent said it
was, while 9 percent thought it wasn't and another 9 percent thought it was
excessive.


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