An X-Ray Vision

Travelers are returning to the air this summer in numbers not seen since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Back as well are the flight delays that plague the nation’s overburdened airports. But hey, look on the bright side: If you get to Los Angeles International Airport an hour ahead of time only to find that the security screening line snakes down the escalator, out the door and around the corner of the next terminal, you can always hope that your plane will arrive at the gate even later than you will.

Of course, the Law of Airport Probability dictates that, under such circumstances, your plane will be on time -- just as it will be late on the day you arrive two hours early only to find no line whatsoever.

With all this waiting around, this may be the summer that passengers finally rebel against removing laptops from cases, surrendering nail clippers and shucking shoes, jackets and belts. Long lines, after all, do more than try patience. Studies by the Rand Corp., the Government Accountability Office and now the Department of Homeland Security point out that queues also make easy targets for terrorists with luggage bombs.

Yet easy fixes have been elusive at LAX and other crowded, aging facilities. Even if the federal government agreed to hire more screeners, there’s little room for new counters or scanning stations.

One of Los Angeles Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa’s biggest challenges will be to rally support for modernizing LAX, something neither of the two previous mayors were able to accomplish despite spending 10 years and $147 million trying.

But even as he tackles the long-term issues, Villaraigosa must come up with stopgap measures to make using today’s LAX faster and safer.

Here’s one decidedly low-tech solution proposed by Homeland Security: Put longer tables at checkpoints so that passengers have more room and time to lay out laptops and personal items. The wait for empty bins means X-ray machines stand empty up to 30% of the time. Passengers will still have to wait if their plane is late. But at least they won’t be standing in line.