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New Airport to Have Top Notch Security
09/16/09 - 04:22 PM
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Mary Scott Speigner - bio
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Bay County, Fla:

The Panama City-Bay County International Airport will be the first airport built since 9/11.  With that comes the most advanced baggage security system of any airport in the country, when it opens in May of 2010.

The airport got a grant from the Transportation Security Administration for $4 million.  That money will pay for a new baggage handling system that is supposed to strengthen security and be more efficient.

It’s called inline screening and will be the most up-to-date security baggage inspection system in the country.  It will better enable staff to detect explosives and cut your time in the airport down by about 15 minutes.

When you check a bag now at the Panama City Airport, you have to go through several steps to get it onto the plane.  But the new airport will cut out those extra steps.

“It’s going to be very, very convenient for everybody… It’ll pretty much put things back to the way it was before 911,” said Federal Security Director Steve Earnest.

With the current system you have to check in your bag with the ticket counter and take it to the TSA officers for screening, but at the new airport all you have to do is leave your bag at the ticket counter.

“It’s going to provide us or allow us opportunities from a security perspective to do things that many airports are unable to do,” said Airport Executive Director Randy Curtis.

After 9/11, Congress passed a law requiring airports to screen all passenger bags, something that wasn’t required before.  But that meant that a lot of airports had to make big adjustments to house screening machines.

The TSA screening machine at the current airport is sitting out in the lobby.  But the new airport is being built with these requirements in mind.

“It’s a very unique opportunity to have a clean sheet of paper to design an airport and do it right,” Curtis said.

The TSA says the new system will require less personnel at the baggage claim and that will leave them open to do other types of security around the airport.

Curtis also says he thinks this technology will help recruit low cost carriers to the airport.  He says time is money to the airlines and this system will save time for everyone.

User Comments

Bay County is not the first commercial airport built since 9/11. The first was the Branson Airport (BKG) which opened in May, 2009 with commercial service to MSP, DFW and ATL on AirTran and SunCountry.

Unlike Bay County, Branson was built entirely by private investment as a for-profit enterprise.

http://www.flybranson.com/

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  09/17  at  11:42 AM

“With the current system you have to check in your bag with the ticket counter and take it to the TSA officers for screening, but at the new airport all you have to do is leave your bag at the ticket counter.”

Checking the bag at the counter is standard for every other airport I’ve been through, EXCEPT PCS.  This is not revolutionary.  Maybe behind the scenes, to optimize for staff, it might be.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  09/16  at  06:23 PM

glad to hear it will have good security. now sink some money into a big board that tells you what flights are coming in and which are departing!! the one we have now doesnt? if we want to be a city that wants growth we have to act like it.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  09/16  at  05:50 PM
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