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American Morning

New Regulations Have Yet to Slow Airports

Aired January 18, 2002 - 09:13   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 ANCHOR: More now on today's airport security deadline. Beginning this morning, airlines around the country required to screen all bags, primarily by matching them to their owners as mandated by Congress in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

It's time to find out how things are going at some of the major airports around the country. Standing by are CNN's Mark Potter, who is at the Orlando airport in Florida, and Gary Tuchman, at Hartsfield airport in Atlanta, the nation's biggest and busiest. Let's begin, though, with Mark Potter. Mark, any problems so far?

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely no problems reported here, Jack, in Orlando. Officials say they have seen no delays yet, related at all to the new screening procedures. The planes are leaving on time. We've also been told that some planes are actually arriving here ten minutes early, so at this early stage, everything seems to be going well.

Now some of the airlines here are using the new million dollar, sophisticated bomb detection machines to check bags for passengers that are selected out by a computer, but most of them, here, as around the country, are using the bag-matching procedure, matching bags to passengers as they get on the plane. A procedure, which critics say, does little to provide real security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bag matching does not prevent a suicidal bomber to come onboard with his bomb, and blow himself out of the sky, because we still don't know what's inside their bag.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POTTER: Now typically about 65-70,000 people a day go through here. There may be more over the weekend. That means they are going to be screening 100,000 bags, approximately, a day. Arguments aside over whether this actually works, the procedure itself seems to be going very smoothly with no delays.

Let's now go to Gary Tuchman in Atlanta -- Gary, how are things there?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Mark, more than 900,000 flights go in and out of the Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport every year, and officials here vow that every bag and every flight will now be checked.

They say so far today everything has gone smoothly, but for the people who arrived here this morning, well, its fair to say they were not lonely.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (on camera): You're looking at the document check here at the Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. There are ten document checks that you go to before you go through the electronic security. Ten lines, each line has had more than 100 people all morning, even before the sun came up. Gives you an idea of the wait that people are undergoing here. Three lines to wait in the document check, the security check, and then when you get to the ticket counter, that's been the longest line of them all.

Want to ask, did you folks check in luggage today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we did.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we did.

TUCHMAN: Did you have any problem at all checking it in?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

TUCHMAN: Did you know about the new rules?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't check anything.

TUCHMAN: They didn't check anything?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't go through any bags.

TUCHMAN: They are saying it is all seamless, you are not even going to know what's going on, how about that? So it was easy for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, it was pretty smooth.

TUCHMAN: Did you come early?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

TUCHMAN: How many hours before your flight?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, we were flying standby, so we were -- about three hours.

TUCHMAN: Three hours.

(END VIDEOTAPE) TUCHMAN: The airlines advise you to come two hours early. If you come three or four or five hours early, and some people say they have come five hours early, you help make the airport a lot more crowded. So try, everybody, to come two hours early. Have an extra cup of coffee.

Jack, back to you.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, Gary, very much. Gary Tuchman in Atlanta.

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