Travelers unruffled by new BIA security

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BANGOR – The new year ushered in a new era in airport security this week, with the nation’s travelers – including those at Bangor International Airport – getting their first taste of a new screening process for all checked baggage.

By and large, the few remaining holiday travelers at a quiet BIA on Wednesday morning were appreciative of the new procedure, mandated by Congress under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“Any extra effort is worth the extra time,” said Heather Bird, who checked two bags in preparation for her return to Jacksonville, N.C., after visiting her parents in Trenton for the holidays.

“It’s still quicker than Europe,” added her father, Fred Ehrlenbach, referring to the extra layer of security, which airport officials estimated adds two to five minutes to the check-in process.

The handful of new baggage screening areas are prominent at the Bangor airport, the lobby of which has been reconfigured to accommodate the large metallic stations where federal Transportation Security Administration employees hand-checked each bag for explosives just a few feet from the ticket counters.

The move adds an inconvenience for travelers, and some aviation experts expressed concern that the screening, ordered to be in place in the nation’s 429 commercial airports by Wednesday, would cause extreme frustration, excessive delays and possible gridlock inside terminals, especially at the nation’s larger airports.

The new security measures also have sparked anecdotal reports of travelers who are going on extended vacations shipping their baggage ahead by Federal Express or United Parcel Service to avoid airport delays.

Officials at BIA, the state’s second-largest airport, said they have been pleased with the new procedure and have heard positive feedback from passengers since the new screening process was put in place about two weeks ago.

“The early results are that the program is moving fairly smoothly,” Tony Caruso, the airport’s assistant director, said Tuesday.

In a news release earlier this week, TSA officials were buoyed by meeting the Wednesday deadline – the final one set by Congress for the newly created agency charged with securing the nation’s airports.

“With this additional layer of security in place, airports and air travelers are better protected than they have ever been,” said James M. Loy, TSA undersecretary.

The airport manager at Portland International Jetport was more worried this week about the cramped space than delays. The most travelers had to wait at the jetport was 15 minutes for their luggage to be scanned by either of two minivan-sized explosive detection machines or 15 smaller machines, all crammed into the passenger terminal lobby.

“Let’s put it this way: The terminal has always been extremely tight for passengers. And this added more equipment in the lobby, which does strain the terminal more,” said Jeff Schultes, airport manager.

The new system requires passengers to bring checked bags from the ticket counter to one of several roped-off areas in the lobby for screening.

The bags may go through one of two Explosives-Detection System units – 9,000-pound machines that screen items on a conveyor belt, using CAT scan technology. Or they may be subjected to one of 15 smaller Explosive-Trace Detection machines. Federal screening personnel take swabs from bags that are then submitted for near-immediate detection of chemical compounds.

Unlike hub airports, which have the space to put machines in restricted areas, out of passengers’ sight, the jetport had no choice but to put the bomb-detection machines in the lobby, where they whir constantly.

“It may not be the prettiest solution, having everything in the lobby, but the bottom line is to screen those bags per congressional order,” said TSA spokeswoman Suzanne Luber.

Bird and her fellow air travelers at BIA were receptive to the changes and patient with the screeners Wednesday as they routinely opened and unpacked bags as part of the added security.

“We appreciate the thoroughness,” Rebecca Bushlong of Indianapolis, Ind., told one screener near the Delta Air Lines ticket counter after the screener unpacked her suitcase while Bushlong watched from over a metal divider.

Bushlong and her husband, Charles Beasley, were in the area visiting family for the holidays at the Alamoosook Lodge in Orland, where Bushlong’s sister is the innkeeper.

While the couple experienced only a minor delay in their travels from ticket counter to airline gate because of the baggage screening at BIA, Beasley, a veteran air traveler, said he worried that the wait would be longer at other airports.

“I don’t know how I’m going to feel about it at the bigger airports,” said Beasley, who estimated he flies 100,000 miles a year working for a pharmaceutical company.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, only 5 percent of bags were being checked. On Wednesday, all bags were checked, with more than 90 percent of bags being checked electronically.

At smaller airports like BIA, screeners checked bags by hand. Many of the larger airports, however, feature high-tech electronic equipment costing $1 million each.

Stations such as those found in Bangor cost about $50,000 each, according to some estimates.

Whatever the cost, the new security measures did give Jan Gilbo of Jacksonville, Fla., more confidence in air travel, she said.

“As opposed to doing nothing?” said Gilbo, when asked if the added precautions made her feel safer in the air. “Absolutely.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.