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Airlines Avoid Holiday Air Delays
Aired December 01, 2003 - 14:33 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Well, last week, we went out of our way to warn you about a shortage of security workers at the airports. And that should have translated into long lines and unpredictable delays over the holiday.
Well, it didn't happen. For the most part, airline travel was a breeze. Well, some of us here didn't experience that. But why were those dire predictions so far off the mark?
CNN's Patty Davis decided to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After hugging her parents goodbye, college student Melissa Dolinsky breezes through security at Reagan National Airport.
MELISSA DOLINSKY, HOLIDAY TRAVELER: I honestly expected there to be huge crowds, you know, having to fight my way through and everyone shoving each other. And there's been no crowd at all.
DAVIS: Transportation Security Administration officials had warned the Thanksgiving holiday crush could spell endless lines at airport security screening because of holiday travel. But that didn't happen, because the agency banned screener vacations and called in part-timers to help out during the crunch.
CHRIS RHADIGAN, TSA SPOKESWOMAN: I can tell you that over the past five days we've done a count every hour on the hour, and it's well under 10 minutes.
DAVIS: The TSA has struggled with getting the number of screeners right. This fall it was forced to cut 6,000 screener positions due to budget concerns.
ELIZABETH KOLMSTETTER, TSA: No one gave us a list and said, "Here's how many screeners you need." So we had to figure that out as we were hiring.
DAVIS: Congressional investigators and the agency's own inspector general are asking top questions about TSA spending to do all that hiring. That put them close to $1 billion over budget.
The TSA has been accused of being shortsighted for spending $60 million on salaries, when it was earmarked for developing new passenger screening methods. PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: We need to get the latest technologies because the terrorists, they're not waiting. They're devising new and more devious ways to get their objects through security.
DAVIS: Investigators also found some screeners were given answers to tests, and found problems with screener performance and training.
(on camera) The TSA says it's working to fix those problems and fix the number of screeners at airports to keep travel flowing and safe.
Patty Davis, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
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 December 1, 2003 - 14:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Well, last week, we went out of our way to warn you about a shortage of security workers at the airports. And that should have translated into long lines and unpredictable delays over the holiday.
Well, it didn't happen. For the most part, airline travel was a breeze. Well, some of us here didn't experience that. But why were those dire predictions so far off the mark?
CNN's Patty Davis decided to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After hugging her parents goodbye, college student Melissa Dolinsky breezes through security at Reagan National Airport.
MELISSA DOLINSKY, HOLIDAY TRAVELER: I honestly expected there to be huge crowds, you know, having to fight my way through and everyone shoving each other. And there's been no crowd at all.
DAVIS: Transportation Security Administration officials had warned the Thanksgiving holiday crush could spell endless lines at airport security screening because of holiday travel. But that didn't happen, because the agency banned screener vacations and called in part-timers to help out during the crunch.
CHRIS RHADIGAN, TSA SPOKESWOMAN: I can tell you that over the past five days we've done a count every hour on the hour, and it's well under 10 minutes.
DAVIS: The TSA has struggled with getting the number of screeners right. This fall it was forced to cut 6,000 screener positions due to budget concerns.
ELIZABETH KOLMSTETTER, TSA: No one gave us a list and said, "Here's how many screeners you need." So we had to figure that out as we were hiring.
DAVIS: Congressional investigators and the agency's own inspector general are asking top questions about TSA spending to do all that hiring. That put them close to $1 billion over budget.
The TSA has been accused of being shortsighted for spending $60 million on salaries, when it was earmarked for developing new passenger screening methods. PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: We need to get the latest technologies because the terrorists, they're not waiting. They're devising new and more devious ways to get their objects through security.
DAVIS: Investigators also found some screeners were given answers to tests, and found problems with screener performance and training.
(on camera) The TSA says it's working to fix those problems and fix the number of screeners at airports to keep travel flowing and safe.
Patty Davis, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
