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Sunday, December 02, 2001
No longer world-class
Regarding the Post-Gazette's reporting on the addition of National Guard troops at airports ("Bush Putting More National Guard Troops at Airports," Nov. 10), the problem at Pittsburgh International Airport is not people, but too few metal detector/scanning machines. On recent trips to New York LaGuardia and Houston Intercontinental, I was shocked to find that those airports had as many as five times more detectors than Pittsburgh International.
The LaGuardia US Airways main terminal has three metal detectors serving 12 gates, or a ratio of one to every four gates. In Houston, one concourse of five gates, serving US Airways, United and Southwest Airlines, had one metal detector, or a ratio of 1-5. At Pittsburgh, there are seven metal detectors at central security; however, two were closed on a recent Monday morning (Nov. 12). Thus, for the approximately 90 open gates at Pittsburgh International, only five metal detectors were in use at a nonholiday peak period for a ratio of one for every 18 gates.
It does not take a rocket scientist to find the cause of the unacceptably long lines (past the Hyatt hotel) on the Monday morning after Thanksgiving weekend ("Airport Lines Stretch a Quarter-Mile," Nov. 27). I missed my every-Monday flight to New York for the first time in 2 1/2 years of working there.
I believe the taxpayers of Allegheny County deserve better management of the $600 million airport investment. Kent George, Allegheny County Airport Authority executive director, should be fired for not preparing the proper infrastructure to serve the traveling public's safety and security needs at Pittsburgh International. Did he not expect people to heed the call and return to flying after Sept. 11, particularly for Thanksgiving? He should have added at least five times more security scanning machines by last week.
On Monday, Sept. 17, Pittsburgh International had a new paved entrance in place and operational -- beyond the short-term garage. If airlines want people to fly, service still has to be part of the package with security.
Pittsburgh International is no longer a world-class airport. New management is needed to return it to a secure and user-friendly airport.
PETER FLOYD
PC backup
I have recently relocated to Pittsburgh and have traveled through Pittsburgh International Airport. The lines are horrendous, as we have all seen. On my last flight out on Nov. 17, the line was 55 minutes long; this arguably was at the height of the day, 8 a.m. on a Saturday.
One thing I noted was the requirement that those travelers with personal computers take them out and, at some point, turn them on. Would it not make sense to at least have signs to inform the travelers? The first indication that they had to do this was from a softly yelled, "You must take your laptop out of the case and put it through the machine by itself" about eight feet from the machine.
You should have seen the couple in front of me; they had three PCs between them. It was like a juggling act, moving to keep up with the line and opening numerous bags to get these out. At the end of the machine, they were asked to switch them on, which is no big deal, but it takes time to shut them down.
Could we have a PC-only line, maybe with some more room for these people to do what they have to do to comply with regulations? They all want to -- it is just a hassle. I will never forget the man in front of me, carrying three laptops, under his arm like a school kid's books -- a most precarious $5,000 or $6,000 load!
DICK BONDI
Airside security
It seems to me a very quick solution to the security bottlenecks at Pittsburgh International Airport would be to relocate the security check points to the five concourses.
My wife and I just returned from Tampa recently and that airport has its security checkpoints located at the airside terminals. With that arrangement, only passengers going to the gates on that concourse would pass through security, not all passengers at one location as it is now at our airport.
That configuration also would allow nonpassengers to use the airside shopping mall and restaurants. Maybe someone should fly down to Tampa and check it out.
JIM VIDT
Sewickley
Squirrel Hill
Shaler