"Phoenix among cities gaining airport screeners; some lose"

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Phoenix among cities gaining airport screeners; some lose
By Leslie Miller
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON - In an effort to reduce long waits for travelers, the government
is hiring more security screeners for dozens of airports, including
Phoenix's Sky Harbor International, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami, New York's JFK
and Washington's Dulles. Other airports, deemed overstaffed, will lose
screeners.

The Transportation Security Administration is trying to come up with the
right number at 445 commercial airports as the busy summer travel season
approaches. U.S. air carriers expect 65 million passengers each summer
month, 12 percent more per month compared with last summer.

Phoenix will get 15 additional screeners, bringing its number up to 920,
according to the agency. The airports gaining the most screeners are
Dallas-Fort Worth, with 308 for a total of 1,388; Atlanta, 59 additional to
1,082; Detroit, 46 additional to 877; and Las Vegas, 35 additional to 777. 

Though Sky Harbor gets long lines during its busiest times, such as Monday
mornings, the average wait is relatively short, said the security agency's
Western regional spokesman Michael Fierberg. 

The average wait time at Sky Harbor during the past six weeks is 6.79
minutes, Fierberg said. 

"A lot more (new screeners) are going to the airports that really have
problems," he said.

This is the third time the agency has reallocated screeners since it staffed
every airport with federal workers on Nov. 19, 2002. Previous changes came
about because Congress reduced the number of full-time screeners the agency
could employ to 45,000 from about 60,000.

Mark Hatfield, security agency spokesman, said it will continue to fine-tune
staffing levels. Because of the numbers cap, other airports will lose
screeners to balance the gains at the busiest airports. 

"We're hoping to achieve those through attrition in the coming months,"
Hatfield said.

David Plavin, president of the airport trade group Airports Council
International-North America, said the fledgling agency has shown it doesn't
have enough experience in airport management.

"It doesn't strike me that the federal government has figured out a way to
be flexible enough to have enough people there when the passengers are
there," Plavin said. 

Fierberg said the agency is trying to add more flexibility so that it can
better deal with unusual circumstances, such as bad weather, that cause
flight reschedulings.


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