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Pittsburgh Airport lines stretch a quarter-mile Next year, try to get there 4 hours early Tuesday, November 27, 2001 By Mark Belko, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Richard Eckert Jr. played it by the book yesterday morning and still missed his flight.
Eckert arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport two hours early, just as the experts told him to do, but it did him little good.
After waiting 45 minutes to check his bags, Eckert then ran into long lines at the airport's security checkpoints. As he stewed, his 10:20 a.m. United Airlines flight departed for Chicago without him.
For many travelers yesterday Eckert's experience was the rule.
What normally would be a reasonable arrival time at the airport, even amid heightened security, , wasn't nearly enough. Many travelers missed flights yesterday morning after waiting in line for as long as three hours.
Tight security, post-Thanksgiving travelers heading back home or to school, the usual Monday morning business rush and storms that caused flight cancellations Sunday combined to create security checkpoint lines more than a quarter of a mile long.
For a while, two lines stretched from the screeners in the airport's landside building the entire length of the moving walkways into the extended term parking lot. That was after some travelers spent as much as 45 minutes in line to check baggage.
"We won't be coming again on the holidays. That's for sure," said an exasperated Linda Werber of Houston, after she spent more than two hours in line with two small daughters and missed her 9:40 a.m. US Airways flight home.
Shelly Nair and her 3-month-old daughter, Camber, left Somerset at 5:45 a.m. and got in line at 7:30 a.m. By the time they missed their 9:35 a.m. plane to Denver, they still hadn't made it inside the landside building. They were rescheduled on an 11:50 a.m. flight.
"Everybody's in the same boat so what are you going to do?" she said.
They weren't the only ones late arriving to their destinations. US Airways, the airport's dominant carrier, was forced to book several hundred passengers on later flights because of the delays. United Airlines shuffled 40 people to later flights after they missed their scheduled departures.
"Three-hour waits are pretty long," United spokesman Joe Hopkins said.
"Standing in line is my way of fighting the war," said Graham Hodgetts of Baden as he shuffled toward the security checkpoint for a business flight to Denver. "[The wait] doesn't bother me. They tell us to get here early because security is tight."
"I realize this is for my protection," added Dr. Rufus Ellis Jr., who missed his 9:05 a.m. flight to Tallahassee, Fla., after standing in line two hours. "Unfortunately, these are the kinds of measures they have to take to safeguard our security and I'm appreciative of that. The next time, I'll get here four hours early."
US Airways and airport officials blamed the long lines on a series of factors: the post-Thanksgiving crunch, Monday morning business travel and stormy weather that caused flight cancellations Sunday in the Midwest and parts of the Northeast. Airport authority Executive Director Kent George said some passengers were taking more than the one allowed carry-on bag through the checkpoint, creating further delays.
"It was just an awful lot of people traveling on the busiest travel day of the year," Weintraub said.
Nonetheless, George said the long waits were unacceptable. Before the end of the day, he and US Airways, which oversees checkpoint security, said another X-ray machine would be put into service.
He said the added equipment would help but would not eliminate delays.
While many travelers who arrived early yesterday morning missed their flights, those who got to the airport closer to noon fared much better. By 1 p.m., the waits at the security checkpoints were only 15 to 20 minutes long. The lines stretched less than 300 feet instead of 1,500.
Pittsburgh was not the only US Airways hub experiencing problems yesterday. In Philadelphia, a baggage conveyor belt malfunctioned, creating long lines and causing some people to miss their flights. In Charlotte, N.C., heavy fog and an accident on an interstate highway forced US Airways to delay a number of flights.
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