Business History Books » Business Consultant » Security upgrades strain airports' space, budgets
Security upgrades strain airports' space, budgets
Question:
Funny, when I mentioned that outfitting the airports for xc-raying all the luggage in the USA would be amonumental tasks, i was ridiculed. But now that they are starting to write about it, people have come to realise how big a task it is going to me. 4 words: I TOLD YOU SO.
Response:
Security upgrades strain airports’ space, budgets Tue May 28, 8:55 AM ET Barbara De Lollis USA TODAY Six months after the government ordered better aviation security, the new costs of compliance are jolting airport budgets around the country. One way or another, it’s likely to cost airline passengers more money. Facing a Dec. 31 deadline to screen all passengers’ checked bags with explosives-detection equipment, airports are scrambling to overhaul public spaces to make room for minivan-size machines, as well as longer passenger lines and more security personnel. That’s expected to cost nearly $1 billion, but it’s only Phase 1. Billions of dollars more will be needed beyond 2002, airport directors say, to move the machines out of public view and integrate them with the conveyor-belt systems that carry bags between ticket counters and airports’ loading rooms — the last stop before luggage is hauled out to planes. To accomplish all this, airport directors are ripping out ticket counters, rewiring electrical systems and considering adding steel and concrete to their floors to handle tons of new weight. Some are hiring architects and consultants to plan new buildings and redesign existing spaces to keep lines confined indoors. ”In most airports, you don’t have terminals that big, and you can’t have lines running out the door in Bozeman, Mont., in the winter,” says Chip Barclay, president of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). The tab for the retrofitting? Up to $40 billion — more than 10 times what’s been estimated, says Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. ”This is the surprise that’s coming,” he says. The bills are already taking shape: * Seattle/Tacoma airport, half finished with a $400 million renovation of its oldest concourse, now expects to spend $50 million more to redesign its baggage-handling system to accommodate explosives-detection systems (EDS), each machine the size of a minivan and weighing 8 1/2 tons. The job involves ripping out some of what’s already been built. ”This isn’t a matter of pulling out 10 feet of conveyor belt and plunking down an (explosives-detection) machine,” says Gina Marie Lindsay, the airport’s director. ”It requires a total redesign of how the conveyor system works.” Lindsay estimates it will cost another $100 million to rip out and modify baggage systems elsewhere. The airport, which expects to receive 35 EDS machines, has deferred nearly $130 million in other improvements that had been planned for this year to save money. * Dallas/Fort Worth says it will cost $193 million to move baggage-screening operations out of public view whenever it gets its full complement of explosive-detection machines. * Tulsa is weighing whether its terminal will need enlarging — for $17 million — to hold explosives-detection equipment and extra staff that it expects will be needed to carry out the new requirements. Plans are forming amid uncertainty on many crucial questions, ranging from how the airport construction work will be paid for to whether the makers of explosives-detection equipment can provide enough systems for 429 airports before Dec. 31. At an AAAE meeting last week in Dallas, nearly four of every five airport executives surveyed said the government should postpone the deadline. Department of Transportation officials say they’re trying to do their best to meet requirements that Congress set. Before Sept. 11, about 5% of checked bags were scanned for explosives. Now, 35% are, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta (news – web sites) told Congress recently. ”We must have the best security we can provide right now,” says DOT spokesman Chet Lunner. ”Even if the law gave us more time, the terrorists aren’t going to operate by our timeline.” Exactly what airports will have to do depends on how many and what type of explosives-detection machines each airport gets, a decision that will be made by the Transportation Security Administration. The machines, which use CT scanning technology to detect chemical explosives inside bags, cost about $1 million each. Cheaper alternatives are trace-detection systems, which identify traces of explosives on the outside of bags. The trace systems are portable, but require more staff to use. The TSA says it expects airports to use a combination of both initially, but larger airports would rely more on CT machines, while smaller ones would use more of the trace-detection systems. Beyond this year, some large airports hope to lean even more on explosives-detection machines. Some airport consultants wonder if the TSA can make decisions quickly enough to keep everything on track this year. Tulsa, for instance, expects to require nine EDS machines but could meet the Dec. 31 deadline if it gets six from the TSA by Nov. 1, says Ron Steinert, an airport architect for Gensler & Associates. But the TSA is counting on using the results of pilot projects at five airports this year to help it decide how to allocate explosives-detection machines, trace-detection systems and combinations of the two among the airports. The test results might not be available in time to help airports meet this year’s deadline, says Jim Welna, Minneapolis/St. Paul airport’s public safety director. Long-term money sought As for funding, some members of Congress have proposed $850 million to pay for airport construction related to the Dec. 31 deadline, but there has been little talk of how airports will pay for longer-term projects. Many airports have much of their money committed years in advance to pay for runway improvements, terminal expansions and infrastructure upgrades. Airport directors are lobbying against diverting federal airport grants into security projects. Congress can raise the ticket tax created after Sept. 11 to help pay for aviation security or give airports the go-ahead to raise the local ticket taxes that many airports now collect from travelers to help finance construction projects. ”There is the thought that ultimately our customers — the flying public — will pay for all this, and there’s a limit to what they can afford,” says Grand Rapids, Mich., airport director Jim Koslosky, who has urged Congress to relax the Dec. 31 deadline for testing 100% of checked bags to give airports time to make all security-related renovations on the first pass. Full domestic screening of all checked bags will exact another cost from travelers — time. At Las Vegas’ airport, where travelers check about 63,000 bags a day, temporarily putting 16 explosives-detection machines in the lobby is likely to lead to bigger crowds and longer waits near ticket counters, says deputy director Rosemary Vassiliadis. Each person checking luggage will have to accompany his or her bags while they’re taken 50 or 100 feet to the nearest explosives-detection machine. That means longer lines in a limited space. Officials are developing ways to shape the lines to contain them indoors. ”Check-in may never be the same again,” Vassiliadis says. There are plans to simplify the process. As soon as it’s feasible, Las Vegas wants to knock out the back of the terminal to move the 60 machines it ultimately expects to get from the TSA out of the public area and integrate them with the baggage-handling system. The plan is estimated to cost about $250 million. Jacksonville will be the first airport whose baggage-handling system will be integrated with a full complement of explosives-detection equipment this year, says airport director John Clark. The TSA has named Jacksonville a pilot site for testing an integrated system, which will incorporate five explosives-detection machines. The setup lets passengers check their luggage at curbside or at the ticket counter as they would normally. They’ll be summoned only if their bag later triggers an alarm. ”We figured we’d bite the bullet early,” Clark says. ”Other airports are going to pay for the modifications to put those lobby systems in place, only to turn around and spend hundreds of millions to put in an integrated system.” Jacksonville hired a consultant to redesign the baggage-handling system soon after Sept. 11, when its $40 million terminal expansion was half done. The $15 million modification, Clark says, will provide a system that meets the new standard and keeps waiting lines to a minimum. ”If we don’t get our processing time down to the TSA’s goal of 10 minutes, I think we’re going to lose a significant part of our business,” he says. Another pilot site for the TSA, Grand Rapids, is in the middle of installing explosives-detection machines in its main terminal area and expects to be able to screen all checked bags in June. It handles about 1 million passenger boardings a year. So far, the airport has ripped out a fifth of the area’s ticket counters, eliminating space for 12 agents. The explosives-detection machines will consume about a third of the ticketing area, which used to fill with passenger queues at peak times, Koslosky says. ”This is not a permanent answer,” he says. ”This is to meet the law that Congress passed. We will not be particularly customer friendly with this layout.” Koslosky is one of many airport directors and architects who believe it will take two to four years of experience for the government to figure out what works best, he says. ”We just put $50 million into this building to modernize it,” he says, ”and now we’re probably going to have to redo it all over again.”