Local

Security lines at airports grow with new TSA procedures

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Security lines have been growing at airports across the nation and will only get worse as summer travel picks up.

A new baggage screening system is an important new piece of technology at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport but passengers have questions about how that will do anything to reduce wait times and lines as they go through check-points.

“I believe we have enough resources. We have enough people to staff the security check-point,” Kevin Frederick, federal security director for the TSA in Charlotte said.

Frederick admits 60 jobs are being eliminated because of the new baggage screening technology but maintains staffing levels will remain the same at security check-points.

He said the new system for checked bags is extremely efficient and offers enhanced security for passengers.

The new baggage screening system has three-and-a-half miles of conveyor belts underneath the belly of the airport.

The state of the art equipment screens every bag for explosives.

Brent Cagle, interim aviation director, runs the airport and helped implement the new baggage system.

Cagle is so concerned about the reduction in staffing levels he wrote a three-page letter to the head of the TSA demanding a freeze in cuts.

“We are very concerned that the service level is slipping,” Cagle said.

Cagle believes the problems experienced at the airport when spring break started last month is proof the TSA staffing model is broken. Six-hundred passengers missed their flights that day.

“We've seen a steady decline No. 1 in the resources the TSA places here locally and No. 2 an increase in the wait times for the passengers,” Cagle said.

The TSA said that day in March was an anomaly and they have all the staff they need.

American Airlines said nearly 6,800 passengers missed flights in one week.

“You know, we're stewards of the taxpayers’ money we're not going to have people standing around doing nothing. We're staffed for what we need,” Frederick said.

One thing passengers can do to expedite their time going through screening at the airport is register for TSA pre-check.

Those lines are always faster and shorter than any other in the airport.

Eyewitness News reporter Paul Boyd is getting a behind-the-scenes look at some of the new procedures and is asking airport officials about their effect on travelers and missed flights. See the full report starting at 5 p.m. on Eyewitness News.

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