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TSA: Security changes not affecting air screening timesFrom Jeanne Meserve  YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Changes allowing some items previously barred from baggage and new security procedures at terminals don't appear to have affected screening times at the nation's largest airports over the holiday travel period, the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday. The peak wait time for security screening at the nation's 40 largest airports was 13.4 minutes between Thursday and Tuesday, TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser said. The average wait time was 4.5 minutes, about the same as in previous years, Kayser said. On Thursday, the TSA began allowing some small, sharp, objects in carry-on bags -- scissors less than 4 inches long and tools less than 7 inches long. Such items had been prohibited since shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks in which al Qaeda operatives used knives and box cutters to take over aircraft. In making the change, TSA cited other improvements in security, including the installation of reinforced cockpit doors. TSA studies showed that a quarter of passenger screeners' time was spent searching for small scissors and other sharp items, and administrators wanted screeners to spend more time searching for dangerous items such as explosives. The TSA also began more random secondary screenings of passengers, including enhanced pat-downs, to screen more thoroughly for explosives. The agency has not yet compiled figures on how many of those additional screenings have been conducted since the new protocols went into effect. 
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