Just went through YEG security where there were seven people working one belt and a lineup that was ten minutes long and growing.
What a bunch of hooey. I watched the activities and figured three people max could have managed that belt effectively.

More union featherbedding I presume.

What an annoyance, particularly this being
the "screaming kids" season for flying.

Maybe they were on yellow parnel alert.

No...it was a red alert.

We're already starting to rough-up Habs fans in anticipation of the beating we're going to give you guys outdoors in November!!!

This is a frustrating time of year to travel, and I don't know why YEG has just one lane open when there are two screening devices that can be used. It is a pain watching those idiots -- the travellers not the security people -- go through as if they have never done this before. They seldom have their boarding passes so have to spend a few seconds/minutes searching for the ticket envelope and then the boarding pass. Then they have to clear pockets, and women still try to talk through with purses. And, well, we've all been there, far too often.

But hey, I saw on TV news last night that the security folks themselves are getting new uniforms "for a consistent look" across the country.

When you say seven people were working one belt, are you also counting the greeter, the wand/magnetometer operator and the ETD (bomb detetor swabbie) operator?
For one belt we require a minimum of five screeners. One for door, one for ETD, one for magnetometer and two on x-ray/bag-check. We can open a second lane with eight people. The supervisor, if s/he is on the point, is not counted in this total because s/he doesn't do screening work.

Edit: I should also note that training can make it look like we have inflated numbers. The new training regime is taking forever to implement properly so we have a lot of partially trained screeners who still need a lot of hand-holding.

[This message has been edited by CATSA Screener (edited 07-09-2003).]

A supervisor not doing work: sounds like AC.

Supervising is work.

The last time I went through YEG, I was rushing from the mainline AC side of the terminal to the Dash side that WS operates out of also. The security line was horrendous! There seemed to be lots of staff, however, the were doing a bomb-check on everyone...unreal. When myself and another lady enquired as to why they were doing this, the one staff member replied "oh, a manager is here today." There's NO way everyone has to be checked for explosive devices. Yeeesh.

You mean from the South Terminal where AC/Zip has a few flights to the North Terminal where WestJet provides service and in the basement of which AC has its Dash8 operations.

Ahem.... I think NOT Habs 4, Oilers 1

I agree, YEG security can be a bunch of overgrown boyscouts. I've actually had them WEIGH my hand luggage in case it might be over the limit.

They try to make this an "international" airport, but security behaves like they're from some backwoods small town. Yes, do your job well... but get real.

I agree. Have u been thru YYJ though? They're unbelievable. They must have a HUGE collection of tweezers by now.

I guess they must recognize you "foreigners" because I've never had a problem.

Perhaps it's your AC boarding passes that give you away!

Never a problem in YEG, now YVR - that's another story and quite frankly YYZ is pretty out to lunch most of the time.