The September 11th attack
Little relief in sight at airports

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer

If you thought long lines and interminable waits at Hawai'i airports would ease six weeks after terrorist attacks forced extra security precautions, think again.

The line to check in for an Aloha Airlines flight snakes out the door at Kahului Airport. Christie Wilson • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We can talk about improving things, but it's going to take awhile," said Tweet Coleman, Pacific representative for the Federal Aviation Administration. "This is not just a phase we're going through. Buckle down. This is the way it's going to be for a while."

Fortunately, airline officials say most travelers appear to be patient.

"We understand the frustration of travelers. Interisland flights are 30 minutes or less, and it takes an hour or more to get on the plane," said Stu Glauberman, a spokesman for Aloha Airlines.

State Sen. Jan Buen, D-4th (North/West Maui, Moloka'i, Lana'i), who flies to O'ahu almost daily, said she and other business people have it easier because they don't carry luggage. Travelers with bags sometimes stand in lines that run outside the terminal at Kahului Airport.

The Maui airport has had problems with equipment failures and personnel shortages that should be resolved shortly, said Buzzy Chang, regional vice president for the airport security firm Wackenhut Corp. He said baggage-screening machines have been repaired and new employees are in training.

"There is a delay. We've got to do drug testing. We've got to do a 10-year background check, and we have to give them 40 hours of training," Chang said.

Buen said she supports spending additional state money to promote tourism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but she wants to be sure the visitors have a good experience, which includes moving through airports.

"I talked with a couple from San Diego, and they said they won't be coming back" because of the airport experience, Buen said. "We need to be safe, but the lines have to move much more quickly."

Lines last hours

While Maui may be a special case, there are long delays at all the state's airports. It can take passengers much longer than an hour to get on a plane. Catching a Mainland flight may mean standing in five different lines: one for agricultural inspection, one for ticketing, one for a luggage inspection if a passenger is selected, one for metal detector screening and a final line for boarding. The state is doing all it can to ease discomfort, said Marilyn Kali, public information officer for the State Department of Transportation.

"We are concerned that the airports are the first and last place that visitors see when they come to Hawai'i, and we want to make a good impression.

"We are increasing our visitor information staff to assist passengers, we have increased the number of uniformed security officers at both arrival and departure levels to assure passengers that our airports are safe, and we are working with the tourism industry to serve Hawaiian juices to international passengers waiting in customs and immigration," Kali said.

Coleman said her agency's goal is to see that all airport security is equal. "One thing we strive for at the FAA is consistency and standardization," she said.

Trading blame

Airline and federal authorities say they are too busy keeping up with new security requirements to focus on streamlining.

"We're busy trying to keep up with the daily changes we get from D.C.," Coleman said.

The airlines point the finger at federal transportation authorities and their new security requirements, while the feds say it's the airlines that are responsible for seeing that procedures work.

"There are many levels of security directives that require us to do different things, and they are constantly changing," Glauberman said.

"The increasing requirement on airlines to do security work is increasing the amount of time that we must spend with each passenger," said Keoni Wagner of Hawaiian Airlines.

Coleman said the airlines have the ability to make things run more smoothly if they can find ways to improve the flow of passengers and luggage.

"It's the air carriers that are responsible for screening all the baggage, not the FAA," she said.

Airlines rehire staff

Gov. Ben Cayetano, who stepped in to help airlines last month by suspending landing fees, sent the airlines a letter two weeks ago asking them to try to minimize passenger discomfort.

"Rehiring laid-off airline personnel to boost customer service and spending more money to increase security staff capabilities are modest measures the airlines can take to get people flying again — and keep them coming back," Caye-tano said.

Glauberman said Aloha had established additional security jobs and offered some of them to furloughed employees, though he could not say how many had found work.

Airlines say they have adjusted staffing and made changes to improve the flow. Wagner said Hawaiian paid to have federal agriculture inspectors open their offices at 5:15 a.m. so passengers on its earliest Mainland flights could begin baggage processing early.

Aloha is "doing everything we can" to expedite traffic through airports, Glauberman said.

And despite glitches like those at Kahului, most folks seem to be handling the situation fairly well.

Ramon Goya, a retired University of Hawai'i-Hilo professor, made a routine Honolulu visit last week and said it went better than he expected, despite a reduced airline schedule that forced him to leave earlier and arrive home several hours later.

Making best of it

On Maui, California-bound passenger Donna Hirn said the lines weren't any worse at Kahului on Monday than at John Wayne Airport in Orange County when she left a week ago.

"We've met some pretty nice people in line. You make the best of it," said Hirn, who had been in line an hour and was only halfway to the ticket counter.

Lonnie Adkins and his surfboard joined a line of about 30 passengers on the sidewalk outside the Kahului terminal who were hoping for quicker movement by using Aloha's curbside check-in. Adkins said he didn't mind the long wait if it meant safer travel.

"It's not bad. Whatever they have to do to make it better, I don't mind waiting," he said.

Advertiser staff writers Christie Wilson and Hugh Clark contributed to this report.