Summer Fliers Likely to Face Endurance Test at the Airport

As travelers return to the skies this vacation season, they are likely to face mounting delays and inconveniences caused by new security rules, staff cuts and other measures adopted at airports and airlines after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Summer air travel has always been about as pleasant as a Los Angeles rush-hour commute. But a confluence of factors this year could test passengers' endurance in ways they have never experienced: the airlines eliminated more than 80,000 jobs last fall, the government is overhauling the country's entire airport checkpoint work force, and new safeguards that have already been causing enormous inconvenience and delays will remain in place, like the evacuation of entire terminals and airplanes at the slightest breach of security.

What is more, airlines are squeezing flights back into peak periods at some major airports like O'Hare International here; passengers are staying longer in the terminals because they are arriving earlier; and droves of leisure travelers unfamiliar with the post-Sept. 11 procedures will be descending on airports, often with baby strollers and squirming children in tow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/11/business/11AIR.html