Updates at Greater Rochester International Airport to Ease Travelers' Way

Updates at Airport to Ease Travelers' Way
Rochester Democrat Chronicle, NY


(January 12, 2004) — Starting this week, a $10.3
million project designed to improve security and
efficiency begins at Greater Rochester International
Airport. 

Travelers will see the signs of construction, but
activity at the airport will continue. The project is
set to be finished by November. 

Key to the project is the creation of a central
security checkpoint between the two rows of ticket
counters on the airport’s second floor. 

The single, six-lane checkpoint will replace the
two-lane cramped checkpoints now at the entrances to
the east and west concourses. Baggage screening will
move away from the ticket counter area. Passengers
won’t have to wait with their bags as they are
inspected. 

These changes make sense, said Michael Ryan of
Fairport, who was traveling to Florida last week with
his wife, Linda, and their young sons, Garrett and
Sean. 

They stopped at the ticket counter, the baggage
inspection area and then the security checkpoint, a
three-step process that will soon become a two-step
process. 

“It would be very nice if we just had to do this and
(airport personnel) did the rest,” said Michael Ryan,
holding the tickets. 

Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks said Friday that
the changes are vital. 

“Anybody who travels will really appreciate the
streamlined entry process,” Brooks said. “We’re seeing
it all over the country and we don’t have to be left
behind on this.” 

Terrence Slaybaugh, the airport director, said the
changes will mean fewer missed flights and fewer
hassles for passengers. 

“What we want to do is get people on their airplanes
and in their seats and on their way,” he said. 

The changes include new escalators in the center of
the building. There will be an elevator from the
ground floor to the ticketing area. 

There will also be information screens that carry text
messages of the announcements broadcast on the public
address system, a feature that will help people who
are deaf or hearing-impaired, Slaybaugh said. 

All of these changes will be good for the county,
Brooks said, especially because they will make flying
in and out of Rochester easier for business people,
the largest passenger group using the airport. 

Restricted access 


One downside of the changes, officials said, is that
people without tickets will no longer have access to
the airport’s restaurant and shops area, the main
concourse that features a large stained-glass,
cathedral-style window. 

Instead, friends and family will have to say their
hellos and goodbyes to passengers in or near the
ticket-counter area. 

In a sense, this is simply an additional limitation. 

Nonticketed people aren’t allowed now into areas where
people board and exit planes. The changes will mean
that people greeting passengers won’t be able to wait
in the rotundas at the end of each concourse. 

However, Slaybaugh said that there should be coffee
carts and other concessions in the unsecured areas, on
the first and second floors. There will also be more
areas to sit. 

In addition, an open-to-the-public viewing area will
be created on the west end of the second floor. People
can gather there and look out on the main runway
through 12-foot high windows. 

While nonticketed visitors to the airport won’t have
access to the main concourse, Slaybaugh and shop
personnel say that the new arrangement may mean more
business rather than less for the stores and
restaurants in the concourse. 

Under the current system, travelers sometimes don’t
see the main concourse at all on their way to and from
planes. And once they have gone through security,
travelers are sometimes reluctant to return to the
main concourse. 

“A lot of people don’t want to go through security and
then out of security and back through again,” said
Lisa Allen, who works at Phillips European, a
restaurant in the main concourse. 

While the planned renovations at the airport reflect
the post-9/11 realities of air travel, they also
reflect the fact that the airport has bounced back
from the time after the terrorist attack when the
number of travelers dropped precipitously. 

Passenger travel at the airport was up 9 percent in
2003 from the year before, Slaybaugh said, meaning
longer lines at peak times and a greater need for a
speedier ticketing and inspection process. 

The increased number of travelers reflects not only a
renewed confidence in air travel, Slaybaugh said. It
also is a consequence of the success in Rochester of
JetBlue and AirTran, two discount carriers. 

Because of their presence, fares are down overall and
the airport is losing fewer passengers to Buffalo
Niagara International Airport, which is used by
JetBlue, AirTran and Southwest Airlines, another
discounter. 

New realities 


Frequent travelers at the Rochester airport said that
they are not surprised by the planned changes at the
airport. Somewhat wearily, they added that they have
adapted to the new world of air travel. 

“Travel light,” said Hardeep Kharbanda, a Rochester
Institute of Technology student who was about to fly
home to Bombay, India. “And be careful about what you
carry on your person.” 

Kharbanda, who is of the Sikh religion and wears a
headpiece, said that he often faces a longer check at
security points because of his appearance. 

“But I don’t have any complaints,” he said. “I’ve
never had to wait too long.” 

Mike Beatrice of Danvers, Mass., who was in Rochester
on business, said that for him the problem in flying
now is that it has become unpredictable. 

“It’s just hit-or-miss,” he said. “You allow time to
stand in line and sometimes you have to, sometimes you
don’t.” 

On this day, Beatrice made it through quickly, giving
himself time to read Robert Parker’s novel, Hugger
Mugger. 

Janet Goldsmith, a Michigan resident who had been
visiting her son in Pittsford and was on her way to
Florida, waited in the main concourse for her flight
to Florida. 

She likes the Rochester airport — it’s easy to get to,
parking is convenient, and the rocking chairs in the
concourse are relaxing. The upcoming changes should
not have a great impact, she said. Indeed, she added,
they may simply bring Rochester in line with other
airports. 

“The time of walking someone to the boarding gate is
gone for good,” she said. 

And the time for counting on a meal — much less a good
meal — while on board is also a distant memory, she
added, noting that she had brought along some cheese
and peanuts to sustain her on her trip. 

The airport was relatively quiet last week, the
December holidays having passed. 

But some students were beginning to return to their
colleges, including Karissa Grant, who was on her way
to Hampton University in Hampton, Va. 

Karissa and her family were waiting in chairs near the
ticket counter, an area where more families may gather
once the new configuration is completed at the
airport. 

Told of the upcoming changes, Karissa’s mother,
Marilynn Patterson Grant, said she wasn’t bothered by
any changes for people dropping off or picking up
travelers. 

“I’m the overanxious mother,” said Grant, who is the
principal of Wilson Magnet High School. “I’d rather be
safe than sorry. We may see it as an inconvenience,
but if it means getting from point A to point B safely
and securely, it’s worth it.” 

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