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American Morning

Airport Security Around Country Supposed to Improve Today

Aired January 18, 2002 - 07:12   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Beginning today, airport security around the country is supposed to improve. Airlines are going to start looking at all checked luggage. They're going to begin matching checked bags to passengers on domestic flights. All of this mandated by the Congress in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America.

The question is, is it going to help? Is it going to make air travel safer or is it just going to mean more delays?

Standing by at major airports around the country this morning -- this is the first day of these new regulations -- to see how the industry and passengers are coping with all of this, we have three, count them, three of CNN's finest -- Gary Tuchman at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, Mark Potter at the Orlando Airport in Florida and Kathleen Koch at the Dulles International Airport near Washington.

We begin with Gary Tuchman -- Gary, what's up?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Jack.

You don't come to the world's busiest airport on a Friday morning if you crave peace and quiet. But this particular Friday it's much more hectic than usual. Passengers have come very early. The lines are very long inside because they don't know what to expect today.

But airport officials here vow everything will go smoothly, although they're being very tight-lipped about what security measures they're employing.

For example, they're not telling us how many X-ray machines they have. They're not telling us how many dogs are sniffing. They do tell us 100 percent of the bags are being checked.

So how are other airports doing? We go to my friend and colleague Mark Potter at Orlando International Airport -- Mark.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Gary.

Here at Orlando, the airlines say they are ready for the new screening procedures and so far airport officials say everything is going smoothly. No delays are being reported. Now, of course, the day is young and we'll keep an eye on things as the day proceeds. Airport officials will be doing the same. They hope that they can keep delays to a minimum. This is a major tourist destination and they're trying to move people as quickly and as safely through here as they can.

They are expecting more passengers than normal this weekend because of the Martin Luther King holiday, so the system will get a good test in the next few days. Typically, about 65,000 to 70,000 people go through here. A hundred thousand bags a day are checked and will now have to be checked. And airport officials again say that they are ready for it. They're using a variety of methods. As in Atlanta, they're not talking specifically about how they're doing that, but so far the word here in Orlando is so good. And we'll see what happens later in the day.

Let's now go to Kathleen Koch in Washington at Dulles Airport -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Mark.

Well, here we're also seeing only moderate lines. But the day is still very early. I walked up and down the entire length of this terminal and the lines we did see I believe primarily were caused by travelers' anxiety, people arriving early, people afraid that there would be massive gridlock.

At this point, though, we have seen some of the big explosive detection screening machines in use. They have at least three of them at this airport. But we haven't seen them in constant use. And again, we're not seeing long lines caused by them. Not seeing any of the bomb sniffing dogs, at least in front of the scenes here, perhaps behind-the-scenes in use.

But what we're hearing is that most of the airlines here, as in most airports around the country, are going to be using bag matching. And, Jack, we'll see how that works as the day goes on. Back to you.

CAFFERTY: All right, thanks, Kathleen Koch at Dulles International Airport.

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