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Interview With Tom Nulty

Aired September 11, 2003 - 13:28   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Two years after the hijackings of 9/11, the government has completely overhauled the way we fly. The Bush administration says that air travel is safer now, but some critics claim the government is not doing enough.
We take a closer look at the airline industry after September 11 with our guest, Tom Nulty, a consultant with Corporate Solutions Group. He's has worked closely with major airlines and knows more about the way we fly than just about any of us.

Thanks for being with us.

TOM NULTY, CORPORATE SOLUTIONS GROUP: Great to be here.

KAGAN: Thanks for taking a flight in.

I was looking at the list you put together of how things have changed since 9/11. And it is amazing, some of the things on here. Reinforced cockpit doors, pilots with guns, meal carts blocking that cockpit door. Just getting through security, just the amount of time we have to allow to get on an airline.

NULTY: It's very different, that's for sure. And it's going to even get more different as time goes forward. You're going to see more and more security and you're probably going to have to even give yourself more time going through the airport. The government plans to institute a new system that's really going to color code passengers as they go through security.

KAGAN: We've been hearing a little bit about this and this is absolutely the last thing people want to hear. That's going to become more of a hassle. But let's talk about this color coding. Anybody who books a ticket will be saying "rate me" basically.

NULTY: Well they're going to have a lot of their information is going to be disclosed during that process. During the process itself, you just have to give your name and your address.

But from that they're going to send that information off to a computer database where that database is going to look at your financial records, going to look at your mortgage, car loans, see if you have any criminal record. And based on a scoring system, that they won't tell you exactly how it works, but that scoring system is either going to rank you green, yellow or red.

KAGAN: And that's going to depend how you get through the airport. NULTY: Right. And if you're green, which they're saying about 92 percent of the people will be green, so they'll go right through, they won't notice a thing. About 8 percent of the people are going to be yellow and that means you're going to get a secondary search, they're going to ask you questions, probably get a hand wand search and other things.

And 1 percent to 2 percent -- which when you think of that, that's a pretty high number -- could very well be red. And red means that even law enforcement might be called to talk to you and you probably won't be able to board the airplane and they're going to do an investigation on you. It may have nothing to do with your travel, it may have to do with something else they find in the database.

KAGAN: Absolutely amazing. A couple of other things about this. One, you're not going to know what color you are. It's not going to be on your ticket like you're economy class and you're yellow. You will have no idea unless you can tell by the way you're treated.

NULTY: Not only you won't know what you are, but even once you find out you've gone through a secondary search, so can assume you've been painted yellow or red, you're not going to won't know what you can do to get off it.

It's not like your credit rating where you can hold it up and find out just what do I have to correct to get off this list. Once you're on there, I think it's going to be pretty hard to get off. So I think the Civil Liberty's Union is all over this trying to find out -- they don't think it's a good thing.

It all depends on which side you look at. It's certainly, from the security point of view...

KAGAN: Well everybody wants to be safe. Everybody agrees about that.

NULTY: Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: .. in terms of if it really work, in terms of Big Brother and your personal information.

NULTY: It's going to be very revealing. And there's going to be a lot of people that don't like it and there's not going to be anything you can do about it. If you want to travel, what's you have to do.

KAGAN: But some consumers are trying to fight back. Didn't Delta Airlines try to do a test on this?

NULTY: Delta Airlines did try to do a test and their passengers found out about this, and so many of the complained that Delta actually backed out of the test.

So they've been testing the system quietly, but they do say they're implement it in the middle of next year. And I'm sure everybody will have a lot of opportunities to say something about it and to see if anything can be modified in some form or fashion.

And that probably will happen -- because it's just hard for me to conceive that one out of every 100 passengers will be ranked red and won't be able to get on an airplane. That means every single flight you're on, somebody will not be allowed to board and that seems like a bit much to me.

KAGAN: A lot of stuff we won't be able to conceive has come to pass.

Quickly let's talk about other forms of transportation. We go through this at the airport. But you can go down to the bus terminal, you can go to the train station and you just get right on board.

NULTY: In most case, that's correct. I was recently in Europe and some trains, for example, the Chunnel Train that goes between London and Paris, that's just like boarding an airplane. You go through security, they take your computer out of the bag, they do all the same kinds of things.

Other trains, however, it's just get on the train and go. But I think, over time, we'll probably see security expand to other areas. You know when you go into office buildings and some monuments, et cetera, they screen you just like you're going through an airplane. I think you'll see further expansion on that over time.

KAGAN: Just our world. No way around it.

NULTY: The new world, the new way.

KAGAN: Absolutely, unfortunately. Tom Nulty, thank you so much. And safe travel.

NULTY: My pleasure, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 11, 2003 - 13:28   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Two years after the hijackings of 9/11, the government has completely overhauled the way we fly. The Bush administration says that air travel is safer now, but some critics claim the government is not doing enough.
We take a closer look at the airline industry after September 11 with our guest, Tom Nulty, a consultant with Corporate Solutions Group. He's has worked closely with major airlines and knows more about the way we fly than just about any of us.

Thanks for being with us.

TOM NULTY, CORPORATE SOLUTIONS GROUP: Great to be here.

KAGAN: Thanks for taking a flight in.

I was looking at the list you put together of how things have changed since 9/11. And it is amazing, some of the things on here. Reinforced cockpit doors, pilots with guns, meal carts blocking that cockpit door. Just getting through security, just the amount of time we have to allow to get on an airline.

NULTY: It's very different, that's for sure. And it's going to even get more different as time goes forward. You're going to see more and more security and you're probably going to have to even give yourself more time going through the airport. The government plans to institute a new system that's really going to color code passengers as they go through security.

KAGAN: We've been hearing a little bit about this and this is absolutely the last thing people want to hear. That's going to become more of a hassle. But let's talk about this color coding. Anybody who books a ticket will be saying "rate me" basically.

NULTY: Well they're going to have a lot of their information is going to be disclosed during that process. During the process itself, you just have to give your name and your address.

But from that they're going to send that information off to a computer database where that database is going to look at your financial records, going to look at your mortgage, car loans, see if you have any criminal record. And based on a scoring system, that they won't tell you exactly how it works, but that scoring system is either going to rank you green, yellow or red.

KAGAN: And that's going to depend how you get through the airport. NULTY: Right. And if you're green, which they're saying about 92 percent of the people will be green, so they'll go right through, they won't notice a thing. About 8 percent of the people are going to be yellow and that means you're going to get a secondary search, they're going to ask you questions, probably get a hand wand search and other things.

And 1 percent to 2 percent -- which when you think of that, that's a pretty high number -- could very well be red. And red means that even law enforcement might be called to talk to you and you probably won't be able to board the airplane and they're going to do an investigation on you. It may have nothing to do with your travel, it may have to do with something else they find in the database.

KAGAN: Absolutely amazing. A couple of other things about this. One, you're not going to know what color you are. It's not going to be on your ticket like you're economy class and you're yellow. You will have no idea unless you can tell by the way you're treated.

NULTY: Not only you won't know what you are, but even once you find out you've gone through a secondary search, so can assume you've been painted yellow or red, you're not going to won't know what you can do to get off it.

It's not like your credit rating where you can hold it up and find out just what do I have to correct to get off this list. Once you're on there, I think it's going to be pretty hard to get off. So I think the Civil Liberty's Union is all over this trying to find out -- they don't think it's a good thing.

It all depends on which side you look at. It's certainly, from the security point of view...

KAGAN: Well everybody wants to be safe. Everybody agrees about that.

NULTY: Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: .. in terms of if it really work, in terms of Big Brother and your personal information.

NULTY: It's going to be very revealing. And there's going to be a lot of people that don't like it and there's not going to be anything you can do about it. If you want to travel, what's you have to do.

KAGAN: But some consumers are trying to fight back. Didn't Delta Airlines try to do a test on this?

NULTY: Delta Airlines did try to do a test and their passengers found out about this, and so many of the complained that Delta actually backed out of the test.

So they've been testing the system quietly, but they do say they're implement it in the middle of next year. And I'm sure everybody will have a lot of opportunities to say something about it and to see if anything can be modified in some form or fashion.

And that probably will happen -- because it's just hard for me to conceive that one out of every 100 passengers will be ranked red and won't be able to get on an airplane. That means every single flight you're on, somebody will not be allowed to board and that seems like a bit much to me.

KAGAN: A lot of stuff we won't be able to conceive has come to pass.

Quickly let's talk about other forms of transportation. We go through this at the airport. But you can go down to the bus terminal, you can go to the train station and you just get right on board.

NULTY: In most case, that's correct. I was recently in Europe and some trains, for example, the Chunnel Train that goes between London and Paris, that's just like boarding an airplane. You go through security, they take your computer out of the bag, they do all the same kinds of things.

Other trains, however, it's just get on the train and go. But I think, over time, we'll probably see security expand to other areas. You know when you go into office buildings and some monuments, et cetera, they screen you just like you're going through an airplane. I think you'll see further expansion on that over time.

KAGAN: Just our world. No way around it.

NULTY: The new world, the new way.

KAGAN: Absolutely, unfortunately. Tom Nulty, thank you so much. And safe travel.

NULTY: My pleasure, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com