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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, January 19, 2002

Airport launches new security phase

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Central OÎahu Writer

The first day of new airline security procedures went smoothly yesterday at Honolulu International Airport, as it did at most Mainland airports.

Lines moved at a fairly brisk pace yesterday at Honolulu International Airport as new security procedures went into effect for checked-in luggage.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We had a lot of apprehension when we started this morning, but things worked out well," said Honolulu Airport airline security coordinator Joe Guyton.

But airline officials are still recommending that passengers get to the airport three hours before international flights and 90 minutes prior to interisland flights, and to expect longer check-in lines as airlines get used to the new procedures.

Yesterday was the deadline for airports to implement new federal security guidelines for all flights.

Honolulu Airport had already been using them for international flights.

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act signed by President Bush last fall ordered airlines to use one or a combination of the following methods of searching baggage: manual search, canine inspection, explosive detection machines, or "bag matching," the practice of making sure that every piece of checked luggage can be matched with a passenger who has boarded the plane.

What may have helped keep yesterday's lines relatively brisk at Honolulu Airport is that it has more bomb-detection machines than any airport on the Mainland. Officials won't disclose the number of machines.

"What that means is we don't have to do too many manual baggage searches, which can really hold up the line," Guyton said. "Searching the baggage by hand is one of our latter options if we detect something suspicious."

Dan and Sue Cook of Wahiawa said checking in for their Las Vegas flight appeared to take a couple of extra minutes.

"They performed the bag matching, along with the usual asking for your ticket and photo ID," said Sue Cook.

Ed Hagenbaumer of Quincy, Ill., was told by security personnel to wait and watch his luggage through a glass partition as it successfully passed through a bomb detection machine.

"You gotta do it, so you might as well be patient," said Hagenbaumer, who boarded an Aloha Airlines flight to Kona. "Things are going to stay this way for a long time."

Check-in lines at the interisland terminals, however, snaked out the doors at certain times yesterday.

Some Aloha and Hawaiian airline flights were slightly delayed yesterday, but Aloha spokesman Stu Glauberman said it was probably because of a combination of heavy weekend travel and the new security procedures being put in place.

"Activity has been pretty normal so far," Glauberman said.

Guyton said interisland passengers should expect longer check-in lines since there are more scheduled flights than at the international terminal.

"Interisland travel is like bus shuttle service, so with more flights will be longer lines," he said.

Airline officials also recommend that all camera film be removed from check-in baggage subject to being scanned by the explosive-detection machines.

"There have been Mainland reports that some of the scanned camera film was ruined," Guyton said.

Nearly all Mainland airports were also reporting no significant flight delays because of the new procedures.

Airlines will be responsible for security until Feb. 17, when the federal government takes over.

All baggage will have to be screened with explosives-detection machines by the end of the year.

Also at Honolulu Airport yesterday, police arrested a 42-year-old man for attempting to smuggle a switchblade in his boot onto a Mainland flight.

The weapon was detected when the man walked through one of the metal detectors around 1 p.m., Guyton said.

The man was taken to the side by security and arrested without incident.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.