Airport baggage scanners relocating

The is to make more room at 's XNA and make less of a hassle for travelers

— Security screening for baggage atNorthwest Arkansas Regional Airport is headed behind the scenes.

Airport officials on July7 approved installing a new baggage-scanning system to replace the Transportation Security Agency scanners in front of the American and Continental ticket counters.

“After 9/11, everybody had to do baggage screening, but there was no space for it in anybody’s airport designs,” said Executive Director Scott Van Laningham. “Most places had no other option but to stick it in the lobby.”

The bulky scanners and search tables impeded the flow of passenger traffic and upset some passengers who didn’t want to open their bags in the middle of the lobby, saidKelly Johnson, the airport director.

“It’s such an improvement for the public, and we get the lobby space back,” she said.

Frequent flyer Jim Harrison of Bentonville welcomes the demise of the lobby-based scanners.

“I love the idea that I can just drop my bags off, and they can do the search on the way to the plane,” he said. “It’s almost like flying used to be.”

Some travelers at XNA can already use the newer system, which takes bags behind the scenes and scans them while passengers head for their gates.

Passengers on Delta, US Air, United and Allegiant flights send their bags through that type of system, but there was no back-of-house room to install a similar setup for Continental and American airlines customers, Van Laningham said. The recent merger between Delta and Northwest airlines freed up some space for the new $660,000 system, he said.

The Transportation Security Administration is picking up 90 percent of the project cost, Johnson said.

Airport officials selected CDI Contractors to install the system, whichshould be operational by early December.

“We’d really like to beat the holiday rush. It could make things go a lot better during our crunch time,” Johnson said.

Fewer hassles make air travel more tolerable, Harrison said.

“I don’t know that it’ll ever go back to being what I’d consider enjoyable, but it won’t be as big a pain this way,” he said.

Sports, Pages 6 on 07/14/2010