Checkpoint Or Choke Point?

(From The USA Today -- By Thomas Frank)

At MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, one of the busiest security checkpoints has only four lanes and frequent crowds.

At the MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT flyers sign up for a project which allows them to trade personal privacy for travel efficiency.

Passengers can't unload their laptops and cell phones at the metal detector until screeners hand them plastic bins. The airport has no room to add more lanes -- or tables for removing items -- to speed up lines.

"I prefer to fly out of FORT LAUDERDALE," software engineer DOMINIK BUSZKO says as he inches through a serpentine checkpoint here. "Every time I've been here the lines are long."

In contrast, security lines move quickly for passengers at MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. That's largely because, shortly after the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, the airport teamed with its largest carrier, NORTHWEST AIRLINES, to expand screening from eight to 17 lanes.

"We didn't want to have the checkpoints be a choke point," airport director STEVE WAREHAM explains.

The different experiences at MIAMI and MINNEAPOLIS airports illustrate one of the most confounding and frustrating phenomena of post-9/11 air travel -- the wild variation in the time it takes to get through security.

Some airports have longer lines than similar airports. Many of the nation's busiest airports are among the most efficient when it comes to moving passengers through security. And some checkpoints have substantially longer lines than checkpoints just a concourse away. In MIAMI on May 13, passengers waited for 21 minutes at one checkpoint, but only for a minute at another.

Surprisingly, the length of airport lines isn't as random or unpredictable as some travelers may think, a USA TODAY analysis of more than 5 million government records shows.

The data, collected from June 2004 through mid-May of this year, indicate that the amount of time passengers spend in lines often is determined by conditions that are apparent to airport and security officials but nonetheless can be difficult to fix.

Checkpoint Or Choke Point?