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Airports ask Congress to offset security costs
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Major airports appealed to Congress for help in paying the $5 billion cost of tighter security, warning of long delays for passengers if work is held up due to inadequate funding. "Airports are scrambling to pay for a host of critical and competing priorities," Gina Marie Lindsey, managing director of Sea Tac airport in Seattle, told a congressional hearing Thursday. "There has never been enough money to go around." Lindsey spoke to a House aviation subcommittee that is preparing a five-year funding plan for improvements such as new runways. "Unfortunately, many of our nation's airports are stretched to their financial limits and do not have a clue as to how future capacity infrastructure and security improvements will be funded," said John Mica, a Florida Republican and chairman of the aviation panel.
Airports say they have been squeezed by government mandates since the September 11, 2001, hijack attacks and a sharp revenue drop caused by the worst-ever industry downturn. They cut jobs and delayed $500 million in projects last year to meet the costs of reconfiguring terminals to accommodate new baggage screening machines or make changes related to other security measures. Airport officials say they want more flexibility in how they can spend federal dollars, reimbursement for security costs and the authority to make certain security decisions. The government took over security from the airlines last year and overhauled passenger and baggage screening. Budget shortfallThe Transportation Security Administration is paying for bag screening machines -- which run up to $1 million each and are the size of minivans -- and is supposed to reimburse airports for the cost of installing them. But the TSA is facing a budget shortfall this year. Many bag screening machines are in terminal lobbies, and airports want to place them out of sight and integrate them with their baggage handling systems. The price tag for doing that at Sea Tac and Atlanta's Hartsfield airport is more than $200 million. The tab is nearly $400 million at the three New York-area airports, Newark, LaGuardia and Kennedy.
"I am in a major dispute with TSA over security checkpoint reconfiguration and modernization expenses. I was assured TSA would fund, and now I'm informed the money is no longer available," said Benjamin DeCosta, Hartsfield's general manager. DeCosta said Hartsfield was not meeting the government standard of 10 minutes for passengers to get through security. He said at one point last week lines at thew world's busiest airport were so long that some passengers waited nearly an hour. "We can't afford to further discourage air travel by allowing airport congestion to worsen," Lindsey said. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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...Many of our nation's airports are stretched to their financial limits and do not have a clue as to how future capacity infrastructure and security improvements will be funded. 
