AviationTSA tells airports to guard exit lanes

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has notified the nation’s airports that it will stop guarding the exit doors between arriving flights and baggage claim. Many airports are unsatisfied with the TSA mandate that airports should start taking over the new staffing positions at the beginning of 2014 with complete takeover by end of March 2014. Transferring the responsibility for guarding exit doors to the airports will save the TSA $88.1 million a year and “will allow the administration to focus on its most critical responsibilities such as the screening of passengers and baggage,” TSA said in a statement. “Exit-lane monitoring is not a screening function, but rather an issue of access control” similar to perimeter fencing and gates for vehicles.

USA Today reports that Exit lanes at airports were generally left unmonitored before the TSA was created in the aftermath of 9/11; today the TSA monitors about 350 exit lanes at one-third of the country’s airports, according to the TSA. The remaining airports monitor their own exit lanes.

Airports Council International-North America,which represents airports serving 95 percent of the nation’s domestic airline passengers, opposes the mandate as it would create additional staffing cost. “ACI-NA strongly objects to TSA’s attempt to abdicate its responsibility to provide staff to monitor exit lanes by imposing a costly unfunded mandate on U.S. airports,” the group said in a statement.

USA Todayquotes Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission, to say that additional staff to monitor exit lanes will cost the Minneapolis-St. Pau Airport about $1 million per year, a cost likely to be passed to airlines and passengers. “We do not believe that parceling out national security functions is a fair or responsible way to address TSA budgetary concerns,” Hogan said. “Shifting costs to local airports creates an unfunded mandate and decentralizes transportation security efforts, neither of which is in the best interest of the U.S. transportation system.”

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport proactively has installed automatic exit doors in its B Concourse, after experimenting with electronic doors and sensors during the summer. The $6.4 million initiative combines cameras, sensors, and alarms to monitor passengers as they exit through two sets of automatic glass doors and then a metal gate. Alarms sound and doors lock when a passenger tries to enter in the wrong direction. The Port of Seattle Commission, estimating to save $1.8 million per year from staffing cost, has agreed to expand the initiative to A and C concourses in February 2014 with a completion date set for end of October 2014. “This new technology supports our number one priority: keeping passengers safe and secure,” said Tom Albro, president of the Port of Seattle Commission. “Sea-Tac Airport continues to innovate, reduce costs and improve the travel experience.”