Airports Fear Screener Shortage This Summer
April 19, 2006 — -- The peak summer travel season is fast approaching, and some airport officials worry there could be long lines at the security checkpoints because of a change in the way the Transportation Security Administration hires its screeners.
In the past, TSA used a national company that hired and did background checks on screeners for airports nationwide. That changed on March 1; now federal security directors must do the hiring for the airports they oversee.
Many airports and security directors have clamored for this change, believing it would allow for quicker and easier hiring. Some airports, however, worry that it has taken TSA too long to ramp up the local hiring efforts, and that they'll be left in the lurch this summer.
Officials at Los Angeles International Airport wrote a letter to the TSA just last week expressing their concern. LAX officials said the airport is already understaffed on screeners; the airport is authorized to hire the equivalent of 2,001 full-time screeners but is staffed below that level.
LAX is among the airports with the largest screener deficits; the others include Orlando International Airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Key West Airport, Dulles International Airport, Boston's Logan International Airport, Phoenix Airport, Las Vegas Airport and San Diego International Airport.
Air Transport Association says planes should fly more than 80 percent full this summer.The airport is worried that there won't be a full staff until this fall, leaving it down as many as 300 screeners during the busy month of August. In the letter to the TSA, airport officials said, "As a result, LAX would be faced with significant security concerns and poor perception of the airport."
Earl Morris, general manager for field operations at the TSA, told ABC News that the switch to local hiring wasn't without some hitches, but that he is confident the agency would be ready for the summer onslaught. "By the time we're at the summer travel season, we will be at full strength or near to it," said Morris.
The TSA acknowledged that it is off to a slow start at LAX because the infrastructure wasn't in place to begin the hiring; but the agency said it expects to begin interviewing for screener jobs in Los Angeles by next week. However, it can take up to six weeks to get a new screener on the job.
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