olde hornet
Jul 27, 05, 7:18 am
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2005-07-27-security-side-usat_x.htm
How one airport keeps its security lines short
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — In a windowless control center inside San Francisco International Airport, Roger Bell punches codes into a computer and swivels a joystick to maneuver any of the 1,200 cameras tucked throughout the airport.
Bell can pan across a terminal or zoom in on someone waiting to check in. But as he watches seven screens on a wall, he is looking for one image: hordes of people about to flood a security checkpoint.
Air travel
Travel alert: Your flight plans include delays
Airport seeks immunity from security suits
How one airport keeps its security lines short
That's code-red, and Bell's signal to grab the phone, hit speed dial and direct supervisors to move screeners from quiet checkpoints to ones that are about to be swamped.
Screeners are shifted 100 times a day. That helps give San Francisco some of the fastest airport security lines in the country and exemplifies how airports can minimize delays.
San Francisco is one of five U.S. airports where security is not provided by the federal agency created after the Sept. 11 attacks. As the debate continues over whether the nation's airports should use a private or government security force, San Francisco is an example of how private security can make a difference — if implemented well.
Security waits at San Francisco were longer than 10 minutes only 2% of the time from June 2004 to mid-May, a USA TODAY analysis of federal records shows. At other large airports, lines exceeded 10 minutes nearly four times as often.
"It's an efficient airport," says passenger Luke Alexander of San Jose, Calif., who regularly takes international flights from San Francisco.
After Sept. 11, the Transportation Security Administration took over passenger screening from airlines, which had security companies plagued by high turnover. The law creating TSA let five airports have private security with TSA oversight to provide a comparison.
Despite San Francisco's experience, TSA says there's no clear evidence that private management shortens lines.
A TSA-commissioned study in April 2004 found that passengers "experienced shorter wait times" at San Francisco's checkpoints and that security there was no more or less effective than at other large airports.
Security waits: For better, worse
Of the largest U.S. airports with security wait times exceeding 10 minutes, these are the best and worst:
Worst
Best
Piedmont-Triad, N.C.
Kahului, Hawaii
Philadelphia
Dallas Love
Cleveland
Jacksonville
Long Beach, Calif.
Kansas City, Mo.
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Charlotte
Raleigh-Durham, N.C
Tucson
Miami
Milwaukee
Fort Myers, Fla.
El Paso
Baltimore
Houston Hobby
Phoenix
Richmond, Va.
Fort Lauderdale
San Francisco
Source: Transportation Security Administration data from June 1, 2004, through May 16, 2005; USA TODAY analysis by Paul Overberg
But TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark says "any number of variables" can explain San Francisco's security lines, such as flight schedules or the number of security lanes. Other large airports with TSA screeners, such as Detroit, Minneapolis and Charlotte, also have short lines.
A division of labor
At San Francisco, Covenant Aviation Security of Illinois hires, trains, schedules, manages and pays San Francisco's 1,140 screeners. The TSA pays Covenant $79 million a year and dictates training, security procedures and minimum salary for its screeners.
Deputy airport director Tryg McCoy cites an "inherent advantage" in San Francisco's model: "The private sector can concern themselves with the human resources efforts, managing the workforce and complying with regulations the TSA issues, and the (TSA's) federal security director can concentrate on security."
Covenant says it has improved management in the following ways:
• It employs a large number of part-timers — about 30% of its screeners compared with 15% for the TSA. Most are college students, says Covenant's chief recruiter, Heidi Funk. Part-timers often work four-hour shifts and are assigned to the busiest travel periods to maximize the number of security lanes.
• It says it has sharply cut the number of screeners out on workers' compensation. That reduces absences that can force security lanes to close. Covenant safety manager Dana Heimdahl required injured workers to report to the airport in case they were needed to work light duty instead of waiting for a call at home. "There were a lot of miraculous cures," she says.
• It stations human "queue masters," instead of signs or video monitors, to instruct fliers at checkpoints on protocols such as removing shoes. "They pay more attention to an actual person who's talking to them as opposed to staring at a screen," says Brian O'Dell, Covenant's San Francisco general manager.
• It closely monitors worker performance. Covert teams go through checkpoints to see if proper procedures are used. Computers track how often screeners detect images of fake weapons flashed on baggage X-ray machines during a work shift. The best screeners operate X-rays during busiest times and mentor sub-par screeners, says training director Ryan Yee.
• It rewards top screeners with bonuses of up to $2,000 and pins denoting them a "master screener" or "customer service ambassador."
• It runs an intricate computer program that forecasts how many passengers will go through each checkpoint every day at every hour. That determines how many screening lanes should be open.
"You'll never see a bunch of screeners standing around at lanes that aren't being used," says Covenant President Gerry Berry, a retired Marine colonel who worked for six months at TSA headquarters after its creation in 2002.
TSA keeps screeners moving
TSA spokeswoman Clark says the TSA moves screeners to busy checkpoints at all airports — though few have a camera network like San Francisco — and forecasts passenger volume to staff them.
At the other airports with private security, the record is mixed. Kansas City and Tupelo, Miss., had short lines, USA TODAY's analysis of wait times recorded at each airport from June 2004 to mid-May shows. Lines were about average at Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Airport and longer at Rochester (N.Y.) International Airport.
McCoy, San Francisco's deputy airport director, says the airport increased the number of security lanes from 33 to 39 — which many airports have done to shorten lines — and added 800 cameras to its system.
Covenant paid for 20 or so cameras at checkpoints, but the idea for the monitoring center came from the airport and TSA.
Aviation security consultant Douglas Laird says it's difficult to link short lines to private security management because, "There are so many variables." But the incentive for shortening lines is clear: "You want to expand your business."
How one airport keeps its security lines short
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — In a windowless control center inside San Francisco International Airport, Roger Bell punches codes into a computer and swivels a joystick to maneuver any of the 1,200 cameras tucked throughout the airport.
Bell can pan across a terminal or zoom in on someone waiting to check in. But as he watches seven screens on a wall, he is looking for one image: hordes of people about to flood a security checkpoint.
Air travel
Travel alert: Your flight plans include delays
Airport seeks immunity from security suits
How one airport keeps its security lines short
That's code-red, and Bell's signal to grab the phone, hit speed dial and direct supervisors to move screeners from quiet checkpoints to ones that are about to be swamped.
Screeners are shifted 100 times a day. That helps give San Francisco some of the fastest airport security lines in the country and exemplifies how airports can minimize delays.
San Francisco is one of five U.S. airports where security is not provided by the federal agency created after the Sept. 11 attacks. As the debate continues over whether the nation's airports should use a private or government security force, San Francisco is an example of how private security can make a difference — if implemented well.
Security waits at San Francisco were longer than 10 minutes only 2% of the time from June 2004 to mid-May, a USA TODAY analysis of federal records shows. At other large airports, lines exceeded 10 minutes nearly four times as often.
"It's an efficient airport," says passenger Luke Alexander of San Jose, Calif., who regularly takes international flights from San Francisco.
After Sept. 11, the Transportation Security Administration took over passenger screening from airlines, which had security companies plagued by high turnover. The law creating TSA let five airports have private security with TSA oversight to provide a comparison.
Despite San Francisco's experience, TSA says there's no clear evidence that private management shortens lines.
A TSA-commissioned study in April 2004 found that passengers "experienced shorter wait times" at San Francisco's checkpoints and that security there was no more or less effective than at other large airports.
Security waits: For better, worse
Of the largest U.S. airports with security wait times exceeding 10 minutes, these are the best and worst:
Worst
Best
Piedmont-Triad, N.C.
Kahului, Hawaii
Philadelphia
Dallas Love
Cleveland
Jacksonville
Long Beach, Calif.
Kansas City, Mo.
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Charlotte
Raleigh-Durham, N.C
Tucson
Miami
Milwaukee
Fort Myers, Fla.
El Paso
Baltimore
Houston Hobby
Phoenix
Richmond, Va.
Fort Lauderdale
San Francisco
Source: Transportation Security Administration data from June 1, 2004, through May 16, 2005; USA TODAY analysis by Paul Overberg
But TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark says "any number of variables" can explain San Francisco's security lines, such as flight schedules or the number of security lanes. Other large airports with TSA screeners, such as Detroit, Minneapolis and Charlotte, also have short lines.
A division of labor
At San Francisco, Covenant Aviation Security of Illinois hires, trains, schedules, manages and pays San Francisco's 1,140 screeners. The TSA pays Covenant $79 million a year and dictates training, security procedures and minimum salary for its screeners.
Deputy airport director Tryg McCoy cites an "inherent advantage" in San Francisco's model: "The private sector can concern themselves with the human resources efforts, managing the workforce and complying with regulations the TSA issues, and the (TSA's) federal security director can concentrate on security."
Covenant says it has improved management in the following ways:
• It employs a large number of part-timers — about 30% of its screeners compared with 15% for the TSA. Most are college students, says Covenant's chief recruiter, Heidi Funk. Part-timers often work four-hour shifts and are assigned to the busiest travel periods to maximize the number of security lanes.
• It says it has sharply cut the number of screeners out on workers' compensation. That reduces absences that can force security lanes to close. Covenant safety manager Dana Heimdahl required injured workers to report to the airport in case they were needed to work light duty instead of waiting for a call at home. "There were a lot of miraculous cures," she says.
• It stations human "queue masters," instead of signs or video monitors, to instruct fliers at checkpoints on protocols such as removing shoes. "They pay more attention to an actual person who's talking to them as opposed to staring at a screen," says Brian O'Dell, Covenant's San Francisco general manager.
• It closely monitors worker performance. Covert teams go through checkpoints to see if proper procedures are used. Computers track how often screeners detect images of fake weapons flashed on baggage X-ray machines during a work shift. The best screeners operate X-rays during busiest times and mentor sub-par screeners, says training director Ryan Yee.
• It rewards top screeners with bonuses of up to $2,000 and pins denoting them a "master screener" or "customer service ambassador."
• It runs an intricate computer program that forecasts how many passengers will go through each checkpoint every day at every hour. That determines how many screening lanes should be open.
"You'll never see a bunch of screeners standing around at lanes that aren't being used," says Covenant President Gerry Berry, a retired Marine colonel who worked for six months at TSA headquarters after its creation in 2002.
TSA keeps screeners moving
TSA spokeswoman Clark says the TSA moves screeners to busy checkpoints at all airports — though few have a camera network like San Francisco — and forecasts passenger volume to staff them.
At the other airports with private security, the record is mixed. Kansas City and Tupelo, Miss., had short lines, USA TODAY's analysis of wait times recorded at each airport from June 2004 to mid-May shows. Lines were about average at Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Airport and longer at Rochester (N.Y.) International Airport.
McCoy, San Francisco's deputy airport director, says the airport increased the number of security lanes from 33 to 39 — which many airports have done to shorten lines — and added 800 cameras to its system.
Covenant paid for 20 or so cameras at checkpoints, but the idea for the monitoring center came from the airport and TSA.
Aviation security consultant Douglas Laird says it's difficult to link short lines to private security management because, "There are so many variables." But the incentive for shortening lines is clear: "You want to expand your business."