Illinois airports expanding traffic as security increases

Long lines at security checkpoints, bomb-sniffing dogs and National Guardsmen nearby.

While air traffic has increased at airports throughout Illinois, it's far from business as usual. Security has become the number one priority from bustling O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to downstate airfields since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

Gov. George Ryan called more than 200 members of the National Guard to duty to enhance airport security, and they are stationed at all of Illinois' commercial airports.

"I think it's probably going to keep the bad guys from considering airports," said passenger Octavio Herrera, a network engineer from San Antonio, Texas, who was at Quad City International Airport. "I think it makes me feel safer."

National Guardsmen began working at Capital Airport in Springfield Friday morning.

"The (public's) response was cordial," airport facilities director Roger Blickensderfer said. "The public didn't have a lot of anxiety about (the National Guard) presence."

There have been other changes: airport security officers now stop vehicles dropping off passengers several hundred feet away from the terminal; dirt berms have been built between the public parking area and the terminal entrance; and bomb-sniffing dogs have become a regular sight patrolling both the terminal and airplanes before passengers are allowed to board.

Passengers so far have accepted the changes and have been returning to the air.