Airport security looks to get passengers to gates quicker

LIHU‘E — Little Lihu‘e Airport has the dubious distinction of being one of the slower airports when it comes to passengers clearing security. Slower in fact than Chicago Midway, JFK International Airport, Washington Dulles, and Chicago O’Hare.

The airport was ranked 21st nationally based upon the percentage of time passengers waited in security lines for more than 10 minutes. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data from June 1, 2004 through May 16 and printed in the July 15 edition of USA Today, 10 percent of Lihu‘e Airport passengers waited in security lines for more than 10 minutes. Los Angeles, LAX, at 10.1 percent of passengers taking more than 10 minutes, was ranked 20.

Piedmont-Triad Airport in North Carolina was at the top, or bottom, one might say, of the wait list, with 23.1 percent of passengers waiting more than 10 minutes to clear security.

But to compare the waiting time at Lihu‘e to that in Los Angeles or even Honolulu, is like comparing apples to oranges, according to Shannon Garcia-Hamilton, U.S. federal security director, Transportation Security Administration, Lihu‘e Airport.

Garcia-Hamilton said the issue at Lihu‘e Airport was one of infrastructure and limitations.

“At LAX or Honolulu, there are a number of expansion opportunities,” she said, referring to terminals, concourses, and lanes that can be used to move passengers through.

As currently configured, Lihu‘e Airport has two walk-through lines and a third x-ray machine to help ease the bottleneck, but has no expansion capabilities.

Garcia-Hamilton said TSA Lihu‘e leaders have been in discussions with state Department of Transportation Airports Division leaders about possibly extending to four lanes, either by adding two to the current central system, or by adding lanes at the outer wings of the airport

Garcia-Hamilton allowed that last year Lihu‘e was the slowest Hawaiian airport in terms of average time taken to clear security.

She said TSA leaders have given the matter a lot of attention and scrutiny, and that “six weeks into this summer we’ve reduced line wait by 40 percent.”

She said the airport’s busiest days are Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. till 2 p.m. Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays also tend to be busy. Garcia-Hamilton said that, on average, 3,500 passengers depart Lihu‘e Airport per day. The capacity is about 5,054 departures per day.

She said June 17 was the slowest day, when during peak hours passengers had to wait an average of 17 minutes in line.

On average, nationally, air travelers faced lines of more than 10 minutes about 6 percent of the time. At major airports during peak morning travel times, security lines exceeded 10 minutes 14 percent of the time, according to the USA Today report.

She said passengers had become more savvy in helping speed things along. They know what to expect, including removing their shoes and readying objects for X-ray inspection.

Thanks to TSA funding specific to Hawai‘i, Lihu‘e Airport will have a new luggage belt system that will run through all of four inline explosives detection systems (EDS). Having such a machine on premises would streamline baggage handling.

Garcia-Hamilton said it was the strong partnership between leaders of the state Department of Transportation and TSA that made the allocation of $6.5 million for this project possible.

These machines can be as large as a family minivan, weigh up to 17,000 pounds, and cost over $1 million each. EDS machines can be highly automated and networked, and can scan several hundred bags an hour. They use computer tomography (CT) to scan objects and compare their density to the density of known explosives, according to a government aviation Web site. Garcia-Hamilton said it would likely take 18 months for the EDS to be installed.

• Andy Gross, business editor, 245-3681 (ext. 251) or agross@pulitzer.net.