Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, Earth (PIT)
Programs: Airline/TSA Avoidance Platinum, Hotel Disloyalty Silver, Hertz 1.7*
Posts: 5,277
Reading my thoughts about PIT again, I suppose it could also be a bus ride from the international arrival area to landside. That would be even simpler, not having to move the arrival area at all. Just needs a door and way to access outside. Perhaps we should suggest this to the airport authority. I mean, has to be the vast majority of people on the few international flights now are terminating at PIT not connecting. There's no need to have a security checkpoint there at all; just send them ALL on a bus and if they're actually connecting, they can re-clear through the main checkpoint. I've never been in the arrival area though so don't know how reasonable it would be to have the proper passage to keep people out of the sterile area. Doesn't seem like it would be too hard though, just need some buses. But then again, the airport would have to pay for buses and the staff for them, while I'm guessing they don't have to pay for the TSA. Plus the TSA would probably object to this for some reason....
BTW, I agree the true problem is with the screening itself. This didn't used to be a big deal, hence the design of that airport in the late 80s (opened 1992). The whole thing was made with the idea that anyone could go out airside as well (hence all the stores out there, still called AirMall but a mere shadow of what was once out there). I fault the designers of PIT for making the thing somewhat inconvenient as a O/D airport in order to have it more efficient as a hub (it could easily have been good for both, I'm sure). But it's hard to fault them for not foreseeing big stupid changes in security policy.