Hawai'i airports to get more screeners
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
Three Hawai'i airports will get more security screeners to reduce the long lines for air travelers.
Overall the state will add 53 security screeners before the summer travel season kicks off. Thirty-five will work at Honolulu International Airport, fifteen at Kona International Airport, and three at Lihu'e Airport.
"This is really great news," said Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. "Hopefully with increased staff we can reduce wait times even more."
He said when screeners first started working at Hawai'i airports a few years ago the average wait time was about 90 minutes. He said in the last six months the state has worked with the federal Transportation Security Administration to reduce the wait to between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the time of day.
Ishikawa said there are 17 security checkpoint lines at the Honolulu airport, but that not all of them are open at the same time. He said three lines were added near the Japan Airlines counters around Christmas, but because of a lack of manpower, they are unable to operate at the same time.
"Hopefully, now we'll be able to do so," Ishikawa said.
The Transportation Security Administration is trying to come up with the right number of screeners at 445 commercial airports as the busy summer travel season approaches.
U.S. air carriers expect 65 million passengers each summer month.
That's 12 percent more than last summer.
The TSA is hiring new screeners for other airports that have experienced long lines at checkpoints. Those include Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Miami International Airport, New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Orlando International Airport and Washington's Dulles International Airport.
In April investigators told Congress that airport security screeners miss many mock bombs and weapons in undercover tests, despite billions of dollars spent by the government to deploy a force of trained federal employees.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Correction: Information about the reduction of waiting time in airport screening lines was incorrect in a previous version of this story.
