Want airport security? Fund it

I t seems as quaint as a covered wagon now, but there once was a time when you could walk up to the gate at an airport in the United States and buy a ticket for a flight just before takeoff after having gone through no security and having no questions asked.

Airlines wanted passengers to find getting from one destination to another on a plane to be as easy and hassle-free as hopping onboard a bus. It was only after a relentless string of hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s by a menagerie of fringe political activists and outright kooks that airlines relented and the Federal Aviation Administration put rules in place requiring metal detectors and the screening of passengers and luggage.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, airport screening became even more stringent, and now simply getting to the gate is an experience that has left many U.S. fliers exhausted and demoralized. As a result of too few personnel, insufficient funding and an apparent desire by the Transportation Safety Administration to save face after a security audit last year found that fake explosives and weapons were able to slip past security a stunning 95 percent of the time, lines at many American airports have become as long and soul-crushing as the old Soviet breadlines.

Though some recent fliers in and out of Pittsburgh International Airport haven’t experienced any problems, passengers at other airports have endured wait times of two or three hours or more to get through security checkpoints. Philadelphia is among the top spots for delays, along with Dallas and Atlanta. This has led to missed flights, stranded passengers, and, you can bet your last dollar, raised blood pressure. With the Memorial Day weekend and the summer travel season imminent, and more customers expected thanks to low fuel prices and an improving economy, this only promises to get worse.

In an attempt to mollify an increasingly angry flying public, the assistant administrator for security at the TSA, the top-ranking security official, was dismissed and a new group of administrators was put in place at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. However, the agency is still facing a shortage of screeners, thanks to morale problems and budget cutting. Its current budget is $7.4 billion, less than the $7.8 billion it was allotted four years ago, even as the number of fliers has increased by 5 percent over the last year. The agency has also been trying to lure more people to sign up for a PreCheck program that allows passengers to undergo a background check before they get to the airport, and allows them to get into a shorter, faster line. But it costs $85 for five years, a price tag that might lead some infrequent fliers to decide to roll the dice and take their chances.

Lawmakers and American taxpayers have a choice — either we pay the price and fly with the greater assurance that comes with exacting security measures, or revert back to something that approximates pre-9/11 security and accept a certain level of risk. Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle recently argued that “reinforced cockpit doors and passengers’ new awareness that a hijacking could end in a fiery death” has done more to deter repeats of 9/11 than what she characterized as “security theater.”

We’ve been told over and over again that traveling by air is safer than getting on the highway. The statistics bear this out. But the cost in lost time and aggravation could well lead many people to bypass the airport, gas up the chariot and take to the highway this summer. With punishing holdups awaiting them at some airports, who could really blame them?