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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With C. Thomas Nulty
Aired November 24, 2002 - 09:17 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Turkey day almost here, and millions of people are preparing to head home for the holidays. It is the busiest travel time of the year. Airports will be jammed. Will the recent changes in airport security impact your travel plans? Here with some insight is Tom Nulty. He is president of Navigant International; that's a publicly traded travel management company. Mr. Nulty, thanks for being with us this morning.
C. THOMAS NULTY, NAVIGANT INTERNATIONAL: Great to be here.
SAN MIGUEL: I understand that you have made some 180 flights since September 11. I'm wondering what the big differences that you have seen and how do you think the new Transportation Security Administration is doing its job?
NULTY: Well, the changes have been significant as far as the TSA is concerned. And I'll have to say they're all very, very positive. There is no doubt that going through security this year is going to be much better than it was last year. Not only do they have more security screening checkpoints, the people are much better trained and they really sent them to charm school. These are very nice people, and you actually feel good going through it.
SAN MIGUEL: But are they -- we saw the long lines, and obviously, after what happened on September 11, that was to be expected. But I'm wondering, in terms of time that a passenger will actually spend from the very -- from getting their ticket, their boarding pass to going through security to actually getting on the plane, how much time are we talking about in relation to when the airlines reopened for business after September 11 last year?
NULTY: Well, the TSA is saying that it is going to take people an additional 10 to 15 minutes to go through lines, but I would give ourselves a little more time than that. Plus, you will have to get boarding passes in advance in many airports now, plus people that are checking bags, you are going to want to get boarding passes in advance.
One of the things you may want to try, however, when you're at the airport, is one of these new automated kiosks to get a boarding pass. They are very easy to use and they are very, very efficient. Works rather nicely. You can pick up your boarding pass, check your bags and get into security. That's actually going to become a requirement in the very near future, where you actually going to have to have a boarding pass to go through the security checkpoint. That's not going to be real popular with business travelers, but for leisure travelers it won't make a difference.
SAN MIGUEL: No more just using an itinerary or anything like that, or you know, your receipt from the travel agency where you bought this from. You are going to have to have the actual boarding pass.
NULTY: That's going to change through next year. Some airports have started doing that already, but starting next year that will be a requirement.
SAN MIGUEL: I should mention that we're going to talk more -- Catherine, actually, had a chance to check out the kiosk, the self- service kiosk issue and we're going to talk more about that later.
So I want to move on to the carry-on situation here. I was seeing some poll that was taken of travelers, I believe it was last week, that said they would prefer, most of them, over 50 percent would prefer that you only had or are allowed one carry-on. They think that would impact security a lot better than some of the other items that have been brought up by the TSA. What's your view and what can we expect with carry-on coming up for the holidays?
NULTY: Well, for starters, you're going to be limited to the amount of carry-on you can take. Everybody is allowed one carry-on bag, plus a purse or a briefcase. But even if you have that, that doesn't necessarily mean you're actually going to be able to get it on the plane. On very full airplanes, the very first people to get on will take all the overhead storage compartments. And the people, the last people to get on may not be able to utilize those, and they may be limited to whatever space they have under their seat. So the airlines do end up actually checking some bags at the gate for that reason.
Now, regarding who can carry bags on, and how many you should carry them on, it probably depends on who you are. Business travelers don't want to check bags. Leisure travelers end up checking bags anyway, so carry-on bags really aren't an issue for them. The real problem, of course, is during the Christmas holiday season when people try to carry on Christmas gifts, and wrapped gifts can be an especially a big problem. You don't want to have them this year.
SAN MIGUEL: You're going to have to unwrap them for the security folks, so you might as well just go ahead and bring them through and then wrap them when you get to your destination.
NULTY: Absolutely.
SAN MIGUEL: We have got about 45 seconds left here. Anything else folks should know as they are actually going through the security process? Items with jewelry or anything else that could be perceived as a weapon?
NULTY: Yes. What you want to do, when you're going through security, you want to take all metal objects off of your person. You want to put them into your carry-on luggage so they can go through the magnetometer. Even shoes, high healed shoes and men's hard leather shoes oftentimes have some metal pieces inside of them. Taking those off right there at the security point, putting them in one of those buckets and sending them through will save you some time, because once you go through that security checkpoint, if you make it beep, then you're on to a secondary search, which means they'll have to examine you much closer with a wand. It takes a lot of extra time. So the key is, take off all those metal objects, including your shoes, if you think there is some metal in them, put them on the belt, send them through initially.
SAN MIGUEL: We all knew it was going to be a much different world after September 11, but you had helped us navigate those changes. Thank you so much. Tom Nulty, president of Navigant International. How appropriate. That is a publicly traded travel management company. Thanks for your time this morning.
NULTY: Great being here.
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 November 24, 2002 - 09:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Turkey day almost here, and millions of people are preparing to head home for the holidays. It is the busiest travel time of the year. Airports will be jammed. Will the recent changes in airport security impact your travel plans? Here with some insight is Tom Nulty. He is president of Navigant International; that's a publicly traded travel management company. Mr. Nulty, thanks for being with us this morning.
C. THOMAS NULTY, NAVIGANT INTERNATIONAL: Great to be here.
SAN MIGUEL: I understand that you have made some 180 flights since September 11. I'm wondering what the big differences that you have seen and how do you think the new Transportation Security Administration is doing its job?
NULTY: Well, the changes have been significant as far as the TSA is concerned. And I'll have to say they're all very, very positive. There is no doubt that going through security this year is going to be much better than it was last year. Not only do they have more security screening checkpoints, the people are much better trained and they really sent them to charm school. These are very nice people, and you actually feel good going through it.
SAN MIGUEL: But are they -- we saw the long lines, and obviously, after what happened on September 11, that was to be expected. But I'm wondering, in terms of time that a passenger will actually spend from the very -- from getting their ticket, their boarding pass to going through security to actually getting on the plane, how much time are we talking about in relation to when the airlines reopened for business after September 11 last year?
NULTY: Well, the TSA is saying that it is going to take people an additional 10 to 15 minutes to go through lines, but I would give ourselves a little more time than that. Plus, you will have to get boarding passes in advance in many airports now, plus people that are checking bags, you are going to want to get boarding passes in advance.
One of the things you may want to try, however, when you're at the airport, is one of these new automated kiosks to get a boarding pass. They are very easy to use and they are very, very efficient. Works rather nicely. You can pick up your boarding pass, check your bags and get into security. That's actually going to become a requirement in the very near future, where you actually going to have to have a boarding pass to go through the security checkpoint. That's not going to be real popular with business travelers, but for leisure travelers it won't make a difference.
SAN MIGUEL: No more just using an itinerary or anything like that, or you know, your receipt from the travel agency where you bought this from. You are going to have to have the actual boarding pass.
NULTY: That's going to change through next year. Some airports have started doing that already, but starting next year that will be a requirement.
SAN MIGUEL: I should mention that we're going to talk more -- Catherine, actually, had a chance to check out the kiosk, the self- service kiosk issue and we're going to talk more about that later.
So I want to move on to the carry-on situation here. I was seeing some poll that was taken of travelers, I believe it was last week, that said they would prefer, most of them, over 50 percent would prefer that you only had or are allowed one carry-on. They think that would impact security a lot better than some of the other items that have been brought up by the TSA. What's your view and what can we expect with carry-on coming up for the holidays?
NULTY: Well, for starters, you're going to be limited to the amount of carry-on you can take. Everybody is allowed one carry-on bag, plus a purse or a briefcase. But even if you have that, that doesn't necessarily mean you're actually going to be able to get it on the plane. On very full airplanes, the very first people to get on will take all the overhead storage compartments. And the people, the last people to get on may not be able to utilize those, and they may be limited to whatever space they have under their seat. So the airlines do end up actually checking some bags at the gate for that reason.
Now, regarding who can carry bags on, and how many you should carry them on, it probably depends on who you are. Business travelers don't want to check bags. Leisure travelers end up checking bags anyway, so carry-on bags really aren't an issue for them. The real problem, of course, is during the Christmas holiday season when people try to carry on Christmas gifts, and wrapped gifts can be an especially a big problem. You don't want to have them this year.
SAN MIGUEL: You're going to have to unwrap them for the security folks, so you might as well just go ahead and bring them through and then wrap them when you get to your destination.
NULTY: Absolutely.
SAN MIGUEL: We have got about 45 seconds left here. Anything else folks should know as they are actually going through the security process? Items with jewelry or anything else that could be perceived as a weapon?
NULTY: Yes. What you want to do, when you're going through security, you want to take all metal objects off of your person. You want to put them into your carry-on luggage so they can go through the magnetometer. Even shoes, high healed shoes and men's hard leather shoes oftentimes have some metal pieces inside of them. Taking those off right there at the security point, putting them in one of those buckets and sending them through will save you some time, because once you go through that security checkpoint, if you make it beep, then you're on to a secondary search, which means they'll have to examine you much closer with a wand. It takes a lot of extra time. So the key is, take off all those metal objects, including your shoes, if you think there is some metal in them, put them on the belt, send them through initially.
SAN MIGUEL: We all knew it was going to be a much different world after September 11, but you had helped us navigate those changes. Thank you so much. Tom Nulty, president of Navigant International. How appropriate. That is a publicly traded travel management company. Thanks for your time this morning.
NULTY: Great being here.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
