Lines of passengers will move more slowly through the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport beginning Oct. 1, when the federal government reduces the number of security screeners there.
The reduction would cause flights to be delayed and canceled, said Martin Pehl, the assistant airport manager, and some could be eliminated altogether.
The Transportation Security Administration plans, as part of an annual shift of workers, to reduce the number of airport screeners at the county's only commercial airport to 13, down from its current 21.
That will leave the local airport with fewer screeners than airports of similar size around the country. That has local leaders, congressional representatives and even the head of TSA's local operations objecting.
The move defies reality at the local airport, Pehl said. The number of passengers has increased by double-digit percentages the past two years. The passenger increase has prompted plans to expand the terminal in the next four to five years and extend the runway in two years.
"The need for screeners is increasing, while the federal government ... is telling us they're going to significantly reduce the number of screeners," he said. "It will result in a significant bottleneck in the screening process."
U.S. Reps. Bill Thomas and Lois Capps, who represent parts of the county, have asked Department of Homeland Security officials for an explanation of the plan.
In addition, the local representative for the Transportation Security Administration has asked her superiors to reconsider the local cutback.
"This is insufficient to operate this airport," said Joan Reilly, the local deputy federal security director with the Transportation Security Administration.
The agency's plan, generated by a computer, comes in response to a mandate by Congress last year to cap the number of screeners at 45,000 at 450 airports nationwide.
But Reilly and Pehl said a federal list of other similar-sized airports shows San Luis Obispo's will have far fewer screeners. The airport in Duluth, Minn., had 150,000 passengers in 2004 -- 5,000 fewer than San Luis Obispo -- and is slated for 24 screeners.
On a federal list Pehl provided of 21 airports ranging from 133,000 to 183,000 passengers in 2004, only two will get fewer screeners than San Luis Obispo, and those are at seasonal airports in Massachusetts and Alaska.
Another list Pehl provided shows San Luis Obispo at the top of the list for the number of passengers each screener will process annually at airports that had between 57,000 and 220,000 passengers last year.
The number for San Luis Obispo is about 12,000 passengers per screener, nearly 3,000 more than the second-highest-rated airport and twice the average, which is about 5,000 per screener.
"We're so far away from everybody else, it's obvious and blatant to anyone that looks at this that there's something wrong here," Reilly said.
Nico Melendez, a TSA spokesman in Los Angeles, said comparing airports is difficult, as no two are identical.
"These numbers are based on several different factors," he said, including airport size and the number of screening stations. He acknowledged there are factors that can't be factored into a computer program.
"If there's a particular concern that it's going to be a customer service or security issue, we will re-evaluate," he said.
Reilly suggested that if the plan takes effect, passengers would need to arrive 90 minutes early if the cuts are enforced, instead of 60 minutes, to allow the screeners more time. She said airline workers at the gates would need to open earlier to begin checking in passengers.
Reilly anticipates that airlines would be forced on occasion to decide whether to depart on time and leave passengers behind or wait and take the risk of arriving late at international airports and having passengers miss connecting flights.
"We're not going to change the requirements for security," she said. "It's just going to take longer."
Pehl said the flights he's most concerned about getting eliminated are on United Express to San Francisco, the only airline that flies there from San Luis Obispo.
A spokeswoman with Skywest Airlines, which operates the flights for United, said the airline is waiting to see how the changes work out.
"Hopefully passengers won't notice the difference," said Sabrena Suite, in a telephone interview from company headquarters in St. George, Utah. "Until we can really see if it is going to affect schedules ... it doesn't do any good to scare the community away at this point."
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
