By Dustin Brown
Despite widespread fears of major flight delays, travelers reported few problems at borough airports this week after new federal regulations governing airline security took effect.
Passengers passing through LaGuardia Airport Monday evening at the end of the three-day weekend said they had experienced few problems since new security measures requiring more through screening procedures began Friday.
“I didn’t notice anything different,” said Kannan Ramasamy, a businessman from Singapore who had just flown into the airport. “I find the same level of check was done on the bags.”
One airline employee said the added security did not impede passenger check-in.
“We haven’t experienced delays with the new procedures,” a service director with United Airlines said Monday night. “It’s worked out well so far. They did a lot of preparation. We had extra manpower on.”
Under the Aviation Transportation Security Act signed by President George Bush in November, airlines are required to screen every single piece of checked luggage.
Airlines can use one of four methods to screen the bags, the most effective of which is to run them through explosive detection machines, which are present in the city’s major airports but too few in number to handle the full volume of luggage.
Other options include doing manual searches by opening luggage and rooting through it, and allowing bomb-sniffing dogs to examine bags.
But the most common method is to match checked bags with the passengers and pull luggage from the plane if the owner fails to board the flight, which would prevent anyone but suicide bombers from planting explosives on a plane.
Travelers at LaGuardia were generally heartened by the new measures but doubted their full effectiveness.
“They’ve heightened security and with that comes a certain level of comfort,” said Elton Ogar, 29, a graduate student at Duke University who flew to New York for a job interview. “I’m also a realist — they can only do so much.”
Others were more skeptical about how effective the new security measures will ultimately prove to be.
“People who want to get through will still get through,” said Dave Debenedetti of Manhattan, who was traveling with his wife and young daughter. “A lock on the door only keeps honest people out.”
One couple got firsthand experience with a loophole in the bag-matching system, which is incapable of matching bags with passengers who are boarding connecting flights.
“Our luggage was shipped before we arrived,” said Marilyn Fox of Long Island, who flew to Miami from Costa Rica and then took a flight to New York on standby. “It went on the previous standby.”
She and her husband did not seem to mind. Their bags were waiting for them the moment they arrived as the luggage had landed hours earlier with the previous flight.
Despite that snafu, they said security was tighter than they had ever seen before. Another passenger even lost an umbrella when it was confiscated by airline employees, Fox said.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
