No Lines at LAX? It’s News to Them

Less than a week after a federal official declared that potentially dangerous security lines on sidewalks at Los Angeles International Airport were gone “forever,” passengers were nevertheless forced to wait outside one terminal during Monday’s morning rush.

Four visits to LAX over the last five days also found long lines for skycap service and at ticket counters spilling onto the sidewalk along the airport’s busy upper deck.

Early Monday, a line at a security checkpoint in the American Airlines terminal stretched across a balcony and down an escalator, until several dozen passengers found themselves standing outdoors.

Even so, seasoned travelers said the line was more tolerable than it has been for weeks, now that airport managers have launched several initiatives to address a shortage of security screeners this summer.

“This is better than the last time,” said Jeannine Bonesteele, an accountant who routinely travels to Toronto and made her last trip in May. “Then it was this far and it doubled back. I had to take cuts in line or I would have missed my flight.”

The Tustin resident made her way from the curb to the terminal door in 10 minutes.

Security experts have warned repeatedly that lines on sidewalks are an attractive target for terrorists with car or suitcase bombs. LAX -- moving about 61 million passengers a year -- is considered the state’s No. 1 terrorist target and has been singled out by Al Qaeda in the past.

An equipment malfunction and a reconfiguration of lines inside the terminal by American Airlines caused Monday’s crowding, officials said.

“We lost one of our X-ray machines; that’s 10% of our capacity,” said Larry Fetters, the federal security director at LAX for the Transportation Security Administration, who added that the problem was an anomaly. “Assuming our machine comes back online, it will be better tomorrow.”

In a letter to an airport official June 13, Fetters said average daily waiting times at security checkpoints this summer are less than six minutes and “have not spiked above 30 minutes for the highest daily peak wait time.”

Security lines on sidewalks had diminished, he wrote, adding, “I believe that particular security risk is gone from this airport, forever.”

Security queues grew at LAX after tougher screening measures were put in place following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The requirements resulted in officials processing half as many passengers an hour through checkpoints as they did before the skyjackings.

Airport officials responded by increasing the number of security lanes by 45%, helping to cut down wait times at the airport’s 13 checkpoints. Still, security lines outside American’s Terminal 4 and also at Terminal 1 persisted, created by an influx of truck-size bomb-detection machines that took up precious space in the airport’s already cramped lobbies.

“The real estate conspires against us,” said Robert Mann, a aviation analyst at R.W. Mann & Co. “This airport was designed in the 1960s, when the ideal situation was you get dropped off at the curb, you walk in, you check in, and you go to your gate.”

This spring, the city’s airport agency worried that a change in federal hiring procedures could leave LAX 300 security screeners short during the summer travel season. The agency’s executive director wrote to federal officials requesting help. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) also asked the TSA for more screeners, citing security risks.

In response, Kip Hawley, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, flew to Los Angeles last month and assured airport officials that LAX would have enough screeners to handle the 18.7 million passengers expected from Memorial Day through Labor Day. To increase staffing, Hawley ordered 80 volunteers transferred from airports around the country.

He sent a team to help reconfigure security lanes to serve more passengers, freeing up to 85 screeners to respond to bottlenecks around the airport. The TSA also converted a nearby school into a hiring center for screeners, hoping it will help them keep ahead of a nagging 23% attrition rate. LAX has about 2,300 screeners, more than any other airport in the nation.

On Monday, the city’s Airport Commission voted to hire a contractor to move luggage from ticket counters to bomb-detection machines, allowing 65 screeners to be redeployed.

The changes have already left some early-arriving travelers at LAX with time on their hands.

Around noon last Thursday, La Mirada contractor Ken Riley gestured to an empty security checkpoint at Terminal 1. “It seems like one minute it’s like this and it’s not crowded and the next there are lines on the sidewalk,” Riley said, adding that just two weeks earlier he had missed a flight after standing in line for an hour and 45 minutes. “It’s like the DMV; it’s hard to predict.”

The scene outside the Southwest Airlines terminal was altogether different Monday, however. About 50 people jockeyed for space for their rolling bags, briefcases and strollers in a skycap queue that traversed the sidewalk. Inside, the ticketing lobby was standing-room-only.

Southwest representatives said the line at the skycap stand swelled after Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport shut down following flooding caused by torrential rains, forcing the airline to cancel three flights and rebook 400 or so passengers. This led passengers on other flights to use skycaps.

“I think today may have been a freak occurrence,” said Whitney Eichinger, an airline spokeswoman.

Airport officials said a pilot program this fall will allow passengers to check bags at remote parking lots. They still urged travelers to arrive two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international flight. Because cash-strapped carriers have taken many jets out of service on domestic routes, airplanes leaving LAX this summer are running 100% full.

“This is just like Disneyland, it’s like Staples Center, and like Dodger Stadium,” said Fetters in testimony before the Airport Commission on Monday. “There will be lines. We’re trying to whack down the lines that cause security risks.”