AARON KARP / SALT LAKE CITY
The US government is continuing to work rapidly towards screening all checked airline baggage for explosives by a Congressionally imposed 31 December deadline, but concedes that 100% screening is not possible by year-end.
The US Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) plan to deploy thousands of explosive detection system (EDS) and explosive trace detection (ETD) machines to more than 420 US airports by 31 December has proved too ambitious. TSA acting head James Loy admitted to delegates last week at the Airports Council International - North America (ACI-NA) 2002 conference in Salt Lake City that 5-6% of US airports will not meet the deadline and will instead operate under "interim" explosives screening plans.
"These temporary solutions may remain in place for months while we work towards a final solution," said Loy. While he declined to name airports, facilities not meeting the deadline could include several of the USA's largest hubs.
Airport directors attending the conference had feared the attempt to meet the deadline at large hubs would create debilitating congestion, including passenger queues spilling out of terminals.
At Miami Airport, for example, the TSA has said it intends to deploy 45 EDS machines along with 200 ETD devices by year-end. But the airport has only nine EDS machines and 45 ETD devices. Miami officials have complained that installation of the new equipment requires terminal re-construction and will lead to chaos among passengers, so the airport appears to be a likely candidate for an interim solution.
"Airports have been saying all along that the [100% screening] goal Congress set was a stretch and was intended to be a goad to the TSA to move as fast as possible," says ACI-NA president David Plavin. "The head of the TSA has enough good sense to know that long queues out of the door into the winter cold are not good for business."
Source: Flight International
