While it is finally safe to stow away the skis after a snowy Chicago winter, travelers at Midway will shoot through a new slalom course when going through security lines beginning Thursday.
New signs, color-coded like ones at ski resorts that warn of the difficulty of slopes, will direct passengers to one of three lines — a green circle for beginners, blue square for intermediate and black diamond for advanced.
Travelers will pick the line that fits their experience level, or security workers will direct them to the appropriate one.
The goal is to reduce tension and frustration at security checkpoints and speed up the wait for at least the experienced travelers who know to whip off their shoes and remove laptops from carrying cases without being told.
Improving the efficiency of the screening process also allows security agents to better scrutinize carry-on items and the behavior of passengers, officials said.
The Transportation Security Administration, which provides security at the nation’s airports, tested the ski symbols at airports in Denver and Salt Lake City.
Under the old system still in operation at O’Hare and most other U.S. airports, the mix of poorly matched travelers in security lines often leads to anger and frayed nerves in an environment that’s already stressful, officials said.
“The design and layout of the security checkpoint at Midway is almost tailor-made for this program,” said Dereck Starks, the federal security director at Midway.
“It was definitely faster than any other time I’ve been through here,” said Anna Davis, of Tyrone, Ga., who was traveling through the family-oriented security lane with her 5-year-old niece, J’ana George, during a test Tuesday of the new lanes.
By reducing angst among passengers rushing to board planes, officials expect the new format to produce an added benefit. The security agency’s newly deployed behavior detection officers may find it easier to discern jittery travelers from criminals or potential terrorists casing out the airport or intending to cause harm, they said.
The TSA is talking with airlines about bringing the program to O’Hare perhaps as soon as this summer.
At Midway’s checkpoint, one lane will be marked by a sign displaying a green circle, the ski symbol for a beginner’s trail. At this lane, novice travelers, families with children, elderly folks and people with disabilities will have the option of taking the equivalent of a bunny hill.
Expert travelers able to breeze through the security requirements like a skier tackling fresh powder will be encouraged to enter the black diamond security lanes.
And passengers whose ability to negotiate the security rules falls somewhere in between and who don’t want to feel rushed by the impatience of others, can opt for the line highlighted by a blue square denoting the “casual traveler,” the airport version of intermediate-level ski terrain.
Business traveler Jeff Kopp says he hates wasting time. When going through the black diamond line on Tuesday, Kopp took only seconds to kick off his shoes, slip his belt out of the loops in his pants, take off his jacket and remove his laptop computer from its carrying case.
“I think the expert lane is a great idea if it’s a shorter, quicker line,” Kopp, 31, of Kansas City said as he gathered his personal items from a gray basket at the end of the security belt.
The TSA’s behavior detection officers are trained to pinpoint passengers displaying extraordinary stress and fear, or signs of deception during questioning, all earmarks of terrorists who may be on scouting missions to find weak links in airport security, officials said.
That’s why the new screening lanes at Midway fit well into the security agency’s strategy to make the airport environment more casual and predictable for passengers so that the behavior detection officers can better red-flag potential trouble-makers, said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition.
“If you are a terrorist, you probably are not going to go into the family line,” Mitchell said.
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Does the program fly?
Since its introduction in Denver and Salt Lake City, the program has been rolled out at about a dozen other airports, with Midway being the latest.
The other airports have found that the expert lanes handle more passengers and move them through more quickly than the two other lanes, said Elio Montenegro, a TSA spokesman.
In the expert lanes, screeners are encountering significantly fewer passengers attempting to bring prohibited items aboard planes, said Jerry Robinson, the assistant federal security director at Midway. The most common banned items include liquids, gels and aerosols in containers larger than three ounces.
Southwest Airlines, which has the most flights at Midway, said customer response has been positive at airports where the TSA offers the self-select lanes.
“It hasn’t slowed down the security process, but we haven’t seen a huge increase in efficiency either,” said Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King.
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Pick a lane
Midway has a single checkpoint with 20 individual lanes, facilitating varied paces of screening among the lanes, said Dereck Starks, federal security director at Midway. Officials have set a goal to process all passengers in 10 minutes or less from the moment they approach the checkpoint, he said.
