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Saturday, December 29, 2007 At airport,
early bird gets the wait
Holiday rush
hour Tips on getting
through the early morning holiday rush at Charleston International Airport: --Taking one of
the first flights of the day doesn't always give you the best chance of making
your connection flight in another city. That theory might work in a larger
metropolitan venue, but in a smaller regional market such as Charleston, it
could be the opposite. --Between 5:40
and 7:30 a.m., as much as 25 percent of the daily capacity will fly out of
Charleston in a fast, 1 hour and 50-minute window. --That means
every morning there's the potential for a bottleneck as a mass of passengers
collectively tries to get through multiple airline counters, baggage checks and
security screenings during a hectic 5 a.m.-7 a.m. rush. Consider: --Pack light.
Avoid checking baggage if possible. --Arrive early.
Lines at ticketing booths and check-ins are unpredictable. Give yourself a
two-hour lead if possible. --The doors at
the airport are never locked, but security screeners and employees working the
ticket counters don't report for work until 4:30 a.m. in order to be ready for
the 5:40 a.m. first flight of the day. --Leave any
items that could delay screeners in checked baggage. --Loafers are
preferable to laced shoes if you must take your shoes off. Go beltless if
possible. --Leave metal
objects, loose change and pocket knives at home. Shortly before
sunup Friday morning, Chris Watson turned the corner inside the Charleston
airport's "A" Concourse and stopped with a stunned look on his face. "Jeezus,"
the Daniel Island resident blurted as he gazed at a line of more than 250
people preparing to take off their shoes, belts and metal objects as they
waited to pass through security. "You'd
think they would have expected us coming," Watson said of the overwhelmed
security screeners. Watson isn't
alone in his observations. Dozens of fliers say the early morning
people-management plan for Charleston International Airport this holiday season
is a snarled mess. To a degree, they're right. Here's why:
Contrary to popular belief, the first flights of the day out of the Charleston
airport aren't the easiest; they're often the most crowded. As many as 14
flights from various carriers will take off from 5:40 to 7:15 a.m. daily this
month, lined up in a narrow 95-minute window. That means
passengers arriving at the airport within a few moments of each other can
create a bottleneck potentially involving hundreds of holiday fliers who'd
expected to have an early jump on the day. Instead of
passing right through ticketing and security, they end up waiting in line,
together. Compounding the
problem is the burden on Transportation Security Administration screeners
during the two-week Christmas/New Year's rush, one of the heaviest travel
periods of the year. Their apparent
lack of staff was debated by several fliers on Friday who said that a few
changes, such as having someone available at the screening lines to take those
in danger of missing their departures ahead in line, would have helped. If that had
happened Friday, 28-year-old Richard Watson might have made his 6:15 a.m. Delta
flight to Atlanta. "Everyone
is so indifferent," Watson's mother said as her son was forced to book a
new flight. Debbie Engel, a
TSA security director whose jurisdiction includes Charleston, said there are no
extra staffers available to be line managers. The other
problem, she said, is that if several flights from several carriers are leaving
at the same time, there's no way to decide who should be singled out to move to
the front of the line. In larger airports in larger cities, a concourse might
be controlled by only a few airlines, or maybe just one, making it easier to
construct a hierarchy of passengers. What's also
clear about airport operations is that some of those who work inside the
building sometimes have competing agendas. Carriers are
trying to keep their on-time flight schedules current and avoid government
criticism, while at the same time, government screeners are trying to keep
planes and passengers safe with their sometimes time-consuming inspections at
concourse checkpoints. Other airports
are dealing with the same sorts of problems. At Charlotte Douglas International
Airport, officials are moving toward installing "universal" kiosks
that can handle ticketing for all carriers, and away from kiosks that are
exclusive to certain airlines, as a means of moving lines along. Charlotte's
Aviation Director Jerry Orr said the most important thing is to get customers
accustomed to doing tasks on their own and to keep them moving, not standing
still for any long period of time. To be fair to
Charleston airport officials, after the passenger rush of several hundred
cleared through Friday morning, the airport returned to a slower pace, by about
7 a.m. But it sure was
hectic in the previous hour. |
