TSA US Airport Screening Lane Growth Concerns

The US TSA (Transport Security Administration) is finding its airports becoming dominated by security checkpoints, according to comments made by a representative on 11 September 2012.

The US TSA was established in 2002 and, over the past decade, has been instrumental in ramping up the level of security prevalent at airports across the United States. To date, over 6,500 individual airport screening technologies have been deployed - approximately 800 full-body scanners among them.

But passenger space now seems to be reaching saturation level, with around five per cent more space being taken up by airport checkpoint lanes every single year. That's according to the contents of a speech made by Domenic Bianchini at the ACI (Airports Council International) World Conference and Exhibition event, which opened in Calgary on 9 September and concludes today.

US Airport Checkpoint Lanes

At the same time as these US airport checkpoint lane expansions, there's a slowdown in actual passenger traffic, Bianchini noted. Therefore, action needs to be taken.

"We just can't keep expanding the checkpoint lanes," Bianchini was quoted as having said by Air Transport World. "There just isn't the space available at airports."

One way of dealing with this would be the introduction of new airport security technologies that streamline the screening process and, Bianchini concluded, the TSA is now actively exploring ways of making checkpoints more efficient, for one.

TSA Airport Screening

In related news, the results of a US airport passenger survey have been released by the Frequent Business Traveler. These show that more than 90 per cent of the 1,852 passengers questioned labelled the TSA's airport screening competence "fair" at best, and little over one per cent described it as "excellent."

"The survey clearly indicates that substantial improvements are needed at America's airport security checkpoints", explained Frequent Business Traveler's editorial director, Jonathan Spira. "Frequent Flyers are under the impression that the current screening process is largely security theatre."

The same survey's results also highlighted how more than 56 per cent of the passengers felt their airport screening experience fell short of expectations and little over 25 per cent had used the TSA's fast-tracked lanes, created specifically for low security risk passengers.

US Airport Screening image copyright Danpaluska - Courtesy Wikimedia Commons