Airports adapting to FAA regulations

The ripples from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States are rocking the entire air transportation industry and the Springfield-Branson Re-gional Airport is no exception.

Industry crisis

"In the aviation industry, we're very worried about what's going to happen to the airlines," said Sherry Wallace, director of marketing and communications at the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport. "I expect to see several more go under before this is over possibly even some of the larger ones. So many facets of our economy are going to be affected by this. It's very frightening."

Wallace is referring to the job reductions and flight cutbacks that are spreading throughout the country. Since air space reopened the morning of Sept. 13, passengers have been expectedly cautious in returning to the skies, resulting in an approximate 20 percent de-crease in flights nationwide, according to a message from American Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Don Carty, posted on the airline's Web site, www.amr corp.com, Sept. 14. Five days later, Carty announced at least 20,000 American, American Eagle and TWA employees would lose their jobs in what he declared a "state of emergency" for the airlines.

Help could be on the way for those airlines in jeopardy. Missouri Gov. Bob Holden is urging President Bush, the Missouri Congres-sional Delegation and U.S. Transporta-tion Secretary Norman Mineta to support legislation to help the airline industry, and in particular, American Airlines.

In a news release from his office, Holden noted that in Missouri nearly 13,000 men and women work for Am-erican, which includes St. Louis-based TWA, and American Airlines provides about $644 million each year in wages.

"American has a tremendous impact on our state's economic well-being," Holden said.

The legislation could provide as much as $15 billion in grants and credits to the airline industry. Carty also said he would be in Washington D.C. to lobby for an airline relief package.

Locally, Wallace said, a couple of flights are canceled daily, "but for the most part, our air service is uninterrupted." However passenger loads are down considerably, from 80 percent full to between 20 percent and 30 percent full, she said. "We do expect that to pick up some, though, as things settle down."

Meanwhile, as far as job reductions are concerned, there are none here.

"They're cutting back work force and flights nationwide," Wallace said, but "we haven't felt anything locally."

For now, the nearly 400 employees in and around the airport will continue to report as usual. However, some are operating a bit differently, specifically those in the security realm.

Stepped-up security

According to Gary Cyr, assistant director of aviation for the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport, security personnel in the airport consists of five full-time law enforcement officers who go through the same training and requirements as a Springfield police officers.

These officers, Cyr said, will enforce the new random identity and ticket checks and will assist in emergency situations.

Airport security tasks are divided between the airport and the airlines, he said.

"Everybody that works at an airport has a responsibility to security," Cyr said. "The airlines contract for the screening checkpoint and the personnel required to man that screening checkpoint. The airlines have the responsibility for the screening of passengers."

He said that once a passenger successfully passes through the screening checkpoint and is beyond that area, the responsibility falls back onto airport security.

"We would respond to any issue that would arise within their security sweep of an aircraft or otherwise," Cyr said.

"Anything to do with the aircraft, baggage to that aircraft, passenger screening at the gate check areas, etc., that's all an airline responsibility."

Some people have faulted these airline security screeners for lackadaisical work, blaming low pay and minimal training. American Airlines-TWA spokesperson Julia Bishop Cross de-clined to comment on the issue. "We cannot discuss security measures for obvious reasons," she said. "We have a blanket policy of not discussing security."

The FAA is trying to repair what happened and get things back to normal in airports across the country.

The strongest effect on the Spring-field-Branson Regional Airport is the new parking regulation. The FAA now states that no unauthorized vehicles may be parked within 300 feet of a terminal.

"In our case that wipes out our whole short-term parking lot," Wallace said. "We can't function like that forever."

The FAA is scheduling site visits to determine the best security plan in each airport's respective situation. Wallace said a date has not yet been determined for the local visit. The Springfield-Branson Regional Airport answers to the Kansas City FAA office of the Midwest Region, along with the rest of the airports in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.

"There are several states that fall under the Kansas City office, and they've got to get to all of us," Wallace said. Both Wallace and Cyr hope that visit comes soon so a solution can be reached.

"Building a blast wall might be an option," Wallace said. "Something that will protect the terminal in the event of a car bomb. And once we'd erected that we'd be allowed to use the parking lot again."

Wallace said the blast wall would be very large about 10 feet high and very thick, and would cost in the $40,000 to $50,000 range.

However, she said she doesn't know yet where that funding would come from.

"Obviously not parking revenue because we're not getting any right now," she said. "Hopefully a blast wall would be sufficient, or perhaps there's another alternative that the FAA would suggest."

Wallace and Cyr said they're hoping the visit will come this month.