"End of Long Security Lines Isn't in Sight for Atlanta Airport's Crowd Manager"

Monday, May 17, 2004

End of Long Security Lines Isn't in Sight for Atlanta Airport's Crowd
Manager
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution


It's 7:15 a.m. and the security checkpoint line at Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport is a half-mile long, snaking through the atrium,
down hallways, around baggage carousels and out onto the sidewalk. 

"This is an absolute embarrassment," yells Lin Register as he walks past
Bheodari Balram, the airport manager in charge of crowd control. 

Sweat is forming above Register's upper lip. He's been waiting outside,
and now he's lugging his two heavy briefcases in a line through the
airport with no end yet in sight. "I'm done. Anything less than six
hours and I'm driving," the Marietta resident says. 

Balram, 46, calmly asks passengers for patience as they pass by. He's in
charge of routing the conga line of travelers through the main terminal.


It was last Monday, a typically busy but unusually bad day at
Hartsfield-Jackson. 

Though it's still early, Balram has already made his toughest decision.
"The hardest thing [is] for me to put people out on the curb, to tell
them they have to go outside," he says. 

The former Army helicopter pilot has been an operations manager at the
world's busiest airport for four years now, and the job's getting
tougher. With travel volume rising back above pre-9/11 levels,
Hartsfield-Jackson's government-run security checkpoint is sometimes
overwhelmed. Backups of varying severity are common on Monday and
Saturday mornings and Thursday and Friday afternoons. 

Balram, known simply as "B" to those who work at the airport, is usually
in the middle of it. He whizzes around on a Segway scooter, asking for
updates on his Nextel radio from workers tending the lines. He
coordinates 25 teal-coated airport service agents who are out in force
Monday mornings and other peak days.

They can't do much to speed screening; their main goal is simply to herd
people efficiently toward the checkpoint, let people know how long the
wait is, and make sure no one gets hurt in the process. 

The airport installed digital signs in the atrium this year to update
passengers on wait times. Delta Air Lines provides extra agents on busy
mornings, and Balram confers with them, too. He also deals with fire
marshals who want hallways cleared and talks with Transportation
Security Administration officials about which checkpoints are open. He
decides when airlines have to let economy passengers into security lines
created for first-class lines. 

"My biggest challenge is to alleviate the passenger fear when they come
through the door," Balram says. "They want to know where they're
supposed to go and how long it will take to get through security." 

Drastic action 

As last Monday's regular crowd of morning business travelers hits
Hartsfield-Jackson, Balram sees a huge logjam forming near the Delta
ticket counter and realizes trouble is brewing. Thunderstorms on Sunday
have stranded hundreds of passengers, adding more travelers to the
start-of-the-week rush. 

He realizes he has to take the drastic step of moving security
checkpoint lines outside for only the second time this year. At least
the weather is good, he notes. 

Balram says the TSA didn't open enough checkpoints early enough, despite
having passenger estimates from the airport. 

Balram tells an employee to take video and photos of the mass of
humanity on the curb to help his boss, airport general manager Ben
DeCosta, make the case for beefed-up TSA staffing. The pictures would
later appear on network television broadcasts about impending summer
travel delays. 

At 7:30 a.m. Balram calls the airport's second-in-command, Mario Diaz,
to brief him. A call from Balram is like a call from the Bat Phone.
Upper management takes it. 

Diaz wants to know if the TSA had all checkpoints open. By 7:30 a.m.
they were, Balram tells him, but by then it was too late. 

Balram is not easily excitable. He doesn't raise his voice and manages
to be courteous even when passengers continually interrupt him. 

"I'm trying to find my son," one lady says. 

"Excuse me, where's an ATM machine?" a man asks. 

"Where is the first class check-in?" another traveler barks. 

"There is no separate first-class line today," Balram responds. The man
snarls, "Well, why does that sign say there is?" 

Balram tells an assistant to turn the sign toward the wall. 

Slow, but moving 

Even on the days with bad backups, frustrations usually stay below the
boiling point. One reason is that, as bad as the lines get, travelers
keep shuffling ahead. Another is the work of Balram and his staff. 

One week earlier, lines sprouted in all directions when Sylvia Roy and
her elderly father, returning to Chicago after a wedding in Atlanta,
arrived at the North Terminal. They had no idea which line to get into
until they encountered Balram, who escorted them to the right line. 

"We've been going back and forth, back and forth," said Roy. "If it
wasn't for the staff, it would be big chaos." 

"The people are very tolerant of each other, as long as there's not
blatant line-jumping," Balram said. 

"Folks, if you don't mind. Take a step to your right," is Balram's
mantra as he walks the corridors. His voice carries a hint of British
accent. Born in Guyana, a former British colony in South America, he
came to the United States in 1976.

Earlier that morning, a Smarte-Carte worker tried to squeeze through the
jammed corridor to put a line of carts into a holding pen. An AirTran
employee pushed them back and the encounter almost ended in fisticuffs.
Balram told the Smarte-Carte worker the matter would be settled later. 

Moments later a TSA employee asks how long the agency needed to keep an
overflow checkpoint open. The screeners who work that line had already
worked a night shift and stayed on extra to handle the morning crowd. 

"9 a.m." Balram replied. 

One of the difficult aspects of crowd management is getting people to
change the way they usually walk through the airport, Balram said. 

Ropes help. 

The airport has ordered a new expandable stanchion called the "Passenger
In-line Guidance System," or PIGS. Balram doesn't like the acronym, but
he'll use the device to wall off certain areas. 

Hartsfield-Jackson and TSA officials vow improvements to prevent pileups
this summer. The airport is adding four screening stations at the main
checkpoint by the end of June. 

Balram said he expects even more travelers today than last Monday,
although he added the TSA has promised to open all checkpoint lanes by
5:30 a.m., which should help. 

Whatever adjustments are made, Balram hopes people learn to arrive
early. Two hours early isn't overdoing it on Monday mornings and Friday
afternoons, he said. 

"If you think you're going to miss your flight, continue through the
checkpoint. The flight may be delayed. The flight may be held. The gate
agent will help you once you get there. It doesn't make sense for you to
get out of line, stand in the ticket counter, then get in the security
line again," he said. 

Last Monday, 400 people missed their flights. 

Balram coped as best he could, calmly walking around the airport,
instructing the customer service reps to double up lines here or loop
passengers on innovative paths there. 

"They give me the flexibility to manage as efficiently as humanly
possible, with the resources I have right now," Balram said. 

By 8:11 a.m., Balram gave a sigh of relief as he gazed toward the curb. 

"Oh good, it's finally thinning out," he said. "Just slightly."


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