With midterms coming to a close, many students are packing up for spring break. For those who are flying to their destinations, airport security and long lines at check-in are sure to be on their minds.
Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the exceedingly long lines at security points at airports — initiated by the implementation of stricter national airport security measures — have since shortened.
But checking in still takes longer than it used to, said Masha Gurvich, the sales manager of the Airporter shuttle service — which cooperates with the USG to offer discounts to student travelers.
Though before Sept. 11 passengers could make it to their planes by arriving just 20 minutes early, "you definitely can't do [that] anymore," Gurvich said. She added that passengers should arrive, at the very least, an hour and a half early for national flights and an hour more for international flights.
"People are not especially keen on sitting at the airport an hour or two, but I tell people to bring a good book or go to Starbucks," she said.
"It was irritating, but I don't think that it's that big of a deal," said Saloni Doshi '03 who recently travelled to London and is leaving for Cancun on Sunday. Cancun, she said, is worth the wait.
Air travel is returning to normal, DiFulco said, but it is still down 20 percent from a year ago — the start of a lull which began well before Sept. 11.
"We expect by the end of this year or early 2003 to resume seeing similar numbers that we were seeing before Sept. 11, and before the industry went into its downturn last year," he said.
In November, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act to create the Transportation Security Adminis-tration — now responsible for hiring and deploying all airport security personnel, including screeners.
The switchover to federally controlled screening began Feb. 17 and will be complete in November. Until then, government-employed security managers will be working with the airlines.
By May the TSA will present Congress with a plan to screen all checked luggage, to identify pilots using biometric technology and to identify potential threats with voice stress biometric technology.
Passengers have seen more random checks at airports since the TSA took over carry-on screening.
"I kind of think that it's more for our peace of mind than anything else," Doshi said.
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