At the end of March, I was on my way to Florida to take a short vacation when I got a front row seat in watching airport security breakdown.
Flying out of Milwaukee, I got to use my recently acquired TSA Pre-Check for the first time. Strolling past the hoard waiting in the regular line, I walk up to the TSA stand and put my iPhone against the scanner only to have the agent give me a sneer and tell me I didn’t belong there. Despite my protest that he was wrong, I was ushered over to the regular line befuddled as to what happened.
Later on the flight, about when we passed by Indianapolis, my girlfriend reached into her purse, suddenly got a puzzled look on her face and asked “wait, am I supposed to have this?”
She pulled out what was roughly a quart of perfume (my estimate at least), then a massive bottle of lotion. Instantaneously, I parroted off the recording engrained in my mind from frequent traveling, “the TSA would like to remind you, 3-1-1…”
In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels, security is once again becoming the forefront of conversation in airports as regulators, safety inspectors and politicians all look at ways to secure facilities. No doubt the topic is important, but it causes plenty of consternation in the industry.
One example is our cover story in this month’s issue on the Dubuque Regional Airport. After 9/11, the airport found itself with a massive bottleneck thanks to new security checkpoints and all of its parking eliminated for some time when the 300 feet rule went into effect. Even now when they’re opening a new terminal, TSA required them to build a vestibule into the agency’s office. When asked why, all the airport leaders did was shrug their shoulders and joke “it's top secret.” What they did know however, was the sizable cost per square foot it cost to add said vestibule.
Sure, taking pot shots at the TSA is easy, but really it’s not the way we get to a better solution as an industry. The agency provides a valuable service and like all agencies across the industry it has to improve, especially in communication.
A lack of communication led to a staggering mess of a line when I first signed up for pre-check at Mitchell. Then a lack of communication on the airline side led to my pre-check not working when added to my Southwest account. Then a lack of communication by TSA led to one woman accidentally bringing way too much lotion and perfume through security.
The debate whether there are too many levels of security or too few is a difficult one and highly politically charged. However, improving cross agency communications seems like it would be a great place to start.
