Screening is only part security

LINTHICUM, Md. -- Besides making airline passengers feel safe, the government wants them to feel welcome.

That's the gist of the message that new airport security directors are getting as training sessions begin for the federal employees taking over airline security.

At sessions such as the one Wednesday at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, one of the busiest in the East, the directors were told that airports will be designed to get passengers through security as efficiently as possible.

Courtesy and helpfulness for passengers are two screener traits in high demand, they heard.

"Not only is security important, but customer satisfaction is important," said Kurt Krause, a Marriott International vice president who is one of several corporate executives on loan to the new security agency.

With a computer-generated slide show as his backdrop, Krause stood before dozens of new security supervisors and told them: "If we don't deliver confidence, if we don't deliver security, if we don't deliver customer satisfaction, people aren't going to be willing to travel."

Bellman's handbook

For example, Krause said, screeners should borrow a page from the hotel bellman's handbook: Sneak a peak at the tag on a laptop or carryon bag and call the passenger by name.

Even before the first federal employees take up positions at screening stations, passenger-friendly procedures are on display at a BWI concourse checkpoint.

The security directors saw the way the airport screens passengers. Travelers wait in zigzagging lines reminiscent of Walt Disney World as they head for the checkpoints. Animated signs instruct them how to speed their passage through security. A Disney executive on loan to the Transportation Security Agency helped develop the plans for handling long lines of passengers.

Travelers selected for extra screening can sit in chairs when they are asked to remove their shoes. Clear plastic partitions allow them to keep their eyes on their property.

"I feel safer going through there," said Kylan Adams of Omaha, Neb., passing through the checkpoint to catch a flight home.

In Baltimore, officials were able to move passengers through the lines more quickly by installing an extra security lane; segregating airport and airline workers and passengers in wheelchairs; and hiring a line manager to funnel people from the head of the line to the metal detectors.

As they set up the security checkpoints at their airports, the new federal directors are drawing on Baltimore's experiences.