Thursday, November 07, 2002

Airport Employing New Security Procedures

Northwest Airlines Adds Self-Service Check-In

SIOUX CITY, IA - Congress, in passing the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and established requirements of that agency, including compliance dates.  The status of these at the Sioux Gateway Airport/Col. Bud Day Field is as follows:

Explosive Detection Systems - TSA is required to deploy explosive detection systems to screen all checked baggage no later than December 31, 2002 for the 429 commercial services airports.  TSA installed an Explosive Trace Detection (ETD) system recently at the Airport, and began screening checked baggage for explosives November 5th.  At that time, the Sioux Gateway Airport was one of only approximately 10 airports in the Country to have such system implemented and functioning (see attached TSA release).

Security Screening Personnel - TSA is required to establish a program for the hiring and training of security screening personnel, and to deploy the federal screeners to each commercial service airport no later than November 19, 2002.  TSA has hired and trained federal screeners for the Airport and anticipates a conversion to the new screening force soon.

TSA Space Requirements - TSA, through the General Services Administration (GSA), has been negotiating with the Airport for the lease of 980 square feet of space in the terminal building to house its operations.  The Airport anticipates finalization of a lease document in the next two weeks.

Passenger Screening Checkpoint Modifications - TSA has approved modifications to the passenger checkpoint screening.  The Airport anticipates physical modifications to be made in the next two weeks.

Northwest Airlines Self-Service Check-In - Northwest Airlines had installed three self-service check-in machines at the Airport (see attached Northwest Airlines release).