"Hartsfield manager asks TSA to help end long lines"

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Airport lines much shorter after 'horrendous' Monday
By MIKE MORRIS, MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta (GA) Journal Constitution


Wait times at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's security
checkpoints Tuesday morning were barely one-third as long as Monday,
when lines spilled outside the terminal.

According to the airport's Website - www.atlanta-airport.com - the wait
just before 8 a.m. Tuesday was 20 to 30 minutes at the main security
checkpoint, and just 10 to 15 minutes at the checkpoint leading to the
"T-gates."

By 10 a.m., the wait had dropped to less than 10 minutes for both
checkpoints. 

That's a sharp contrast to Monday morning, when it took some passengers
one hour and 20 minutes to negotiate a half-mile line that wound around
the terminal, out the door and down the sidewalk.

Airport general manager Ben DeCosta called those lines, which raised
concerns about logjams during the upcoming summer vacation season,
"horrendous."

Monday's morning rush of travelers was exacerbated by the addition of
hundreds of passengers who had been stranded in Atlanta by thunderstorms
on Sunday night, officials said.

Even so, DeCosta said, the passenger pileup would have been reduced if
the Transportation Security Administration had fully staffed the
checkpoint stations at 6 a.m. rather than at 7:30 a.m.

A spokeswoman for the TSA, which is in charge of airport security,
disputed DeCosta's assertion. She said the agency opened all 18 of
Hartsfield-Jackson's main checkpoint lanes at 6 a.m.

DeCosta called local TSA Federal Security Director Willie Williams on
Monday to ask for his personal intervention into the delays at the
airport's security checkpoint.

TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said Williams has spoken to airline and
airport officials and is "reviewing their comments."

Dan Krabacher, a traveler who had been delayed by the Sunday storms,
started Monday morning at the Delta Air Lines ticket counter. Instead of
walking straight to the checkpoint, he was directed back outside, down
the curb, back inside and around the south baggage carousels, over to
the MARTA station, and around the north baggage area.

"Do you know where we're headed?" he asked a fellow passenger as they
walked around the airport. "Where's the checkpoint?"

The scene was reminiscent of Feb. 17, the Tuesday after the President's
Day holiday, when the wait time at Hartsfield-Jackson reached one hour,
30 minutes, and some travelers had to wait outside the terminal.

Peak-time backups and rising travel volume - expected to be back at
pre-9/11 levels this summer - raise fresh concerns about logjams during
vacation season.

Hartsfield-Jackson is taking some steps to boost capacity. The airport
has removed two newsstands that were on each side of the main security
checkpoint to add four lanes with X-ray machines and metal detectors.

The change will allow screeners to process an additional 800 passengers
per hour, airport operations director Paul Meyer said. However, that
assumes the TSA staffs the additional lanes, and the federal agency
hasn't committed to that.

In the meantime, airport officials are discussing whether to have
bottled water on hand for passengers who have to walk all over the
airport.

They're also trying to ensure that passengers get better information
when they get into long lines.

"People want estimates," Meyer said. "They can stop panicking in their
mind if they know they probably won't miss their flight."


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