Still waiting
$1.7 million upgrade not speeding up LR airport lines much.
The newly upgraded passenger security checkpoint at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, has endured some growing pains.
Three members of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission said they received complaints about longer-than-normal lines at the checkpoint.
Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark said the delays at the checkpoint recently caused six people to miss a flight.
“That should never happen in an airport like this,” he said at the commission’s regular meeting last month. “Where I’ve seen a problem ... is a sudden surge of passengers and there’s not an immediate response.”
The commission chairman, Jim Dailey, also said he had received a complaint “specific to the amount of time taking to go through” the passenger checkpoint.
So did one other commission member, Bob East. “I don’t think it’s a big problem, but I think it’s important they be heard,” he said.
The complaints came less than three months after the airport unveiled a $1.7 million expansion of its passenger security checkpoint. The 3,000square-foot expansion is the first to be completed as part of the $67 million first phase of the airport’s terminal redevelopment.
The remade area was expected to sharply reduce the lines and includes a security lane added to the four already in place and left room for two full-body scanners. The machines can detect “non-metallic threats” such as liquid explosives, without X-rays
or creating an image of the passenger’s body.
At the time they were installed, some hope was expressed they would help quicken the pace through the screening process.
Experience shows that hasn’t been the case, but according to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, the upgraded technology hasn’t increased the wait times, either.
“Before we upgraded to state-of-the-art technology here at Little Rock National Airport, we had a 15- to 18minute average wait time,” Sari Koshetz, an agency spokesman, said, echoing comments other agency personnel gave at the commission meeting.
“With the best technology to stay ahead of the everevolving terrorist threat now in place, and with a modified checkpoint configuration to accommodate Advanced Imaging Technology, we still average a 15- to 18-minute wait time,” she said.
“In fact, we haven't had more than a 30-minute wait time since the holidays, and that brief period of longer wait times was during peak holiday passenger volumes and during the time we were undergoing the construction modifications to the checkpoint.”
Jerry Henderson, the agency’s federal security director for Arkansas, said part of the problem might be that expectations of the increased space and new equipment might have been too high.
“There’s a perception that the new technology will dramatically speed things up,” he said in an interview.
“But if there’s an alarm, we still have to resolve the alarm.”
The Transportation Security Administration also tries to calibrate its staffing levels to handle a roughly 20-minute wait time during peak hours. Little Rock National has four peaks throughout the day, he said.
If wait times are “under 20 minutes, we’re not as concerned,” he said.
The problem is that those peaks aren’t static. They change weekly and sometimes daily as airlines adjust their schedules and the aircraft they use, whether they are adjusting to market conditions or weather conditions.
“There are a lot of different variables that play into” staffing levels, Henderson said.
“There are anomalies that happen all the time ... that might add an extra 150 people to the process. That can create a delay.”
Other airline adjustments and the passenger response also has changed the formula used to measure staffing levels, Henderson said.
For instance, since the advent of airlines charging for checked baggage [Southwest Airlines still doesn’t levy such fees], the amount of carry-on baggage Henderson said his agency must screen at the security checkpoint has doubled.
“People are taking seven to eight items to screening as opposed to three or four before,” he said.
Henderson also said his agency also can’t afford to pay too many staff members to stand around when the rush is over.
“Depending on when you come through the airport, we might look overstaffed or understaffed,” he said.
“It’s a constant balancing act. We are charged with managing taxpayer money as prudently as we can and still protecting the public,” Henderson said.
Dailey experienced the new system firsthand when he embarked on an earlymorning flight the day after the commission meeting. He remembered being mildly surprised at seeing few people as he approached the checkpoint on the second floor whereas in the past he would have expected a line back at least to the airport welcome desk.
“When I saw there was no line, I said, ‘Oh, this is cool,’” Dailey recalled.
But upon his arrival, he saw that indeed there was a line.
Under the upgraded checkpoint, the line now is a series of zigzagging rows in the space that was added to the checkpoint instead of a long single-file line like under the old checkpoint.
“It was a pretty full situation,” he said. “I looked at my watch. I made it through in about 12 minutes. I was pleased with the way they moved people through that morning.”
Shane Carter, an airport spokesman, said the commission plans to periodically ask Henderson’s agency and other entities involved in the airport to appear before the commission to allow the five commission members the opportunity to discuss their performance.
“We are advocates for passengers,” he said. “We want those who use the airport to have an excellent experience.”