New airport security measures

It’s a delicate balance between speed and safety for airports trying to get you to your plane on time. Here’s what you can expect in the next five years when “checking in”

By Diane McDougall

Coming soon to an airport near you, expect a bevy of new developments in airport security measures — ranging from iris scans and three-dimensional photos, to passports embedded with microchips and machines that blow a puff of smoke at you to see if you’re carrying explosive material.

In June, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that better security measures will be implemented at airports and other border crossings as part of a $250-million package of national transit security improvements.

The financing, part of the $1.4 billion earmarked for security in the federal budget, will serve to ensure Canadian travellers are better protected with improved cargo and passenger screening. All travellers can expect long lineups and even longer wait-times.

“We’re giving the measures more attention, and they’re obviously more newsworthy to the average person because of the recent arrests (of terrorist suspects) in Toronto,” Harper said during the announcement.

Keeping up with the Joneses

The measures were already in the works, in response to systems being adopted by other countries around the world. Harper said the government is determined “to ensure that we deal with problems before they become actual terrorist events.”

The Canadian government is trying to “keep up with the Joneses.” So of the $250 million, $26 million has been earmarked just for air cargo screening, with particular attention to packages on passenger planes.

About $133 million is designated to improve a range of resources for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, the body responsible for checking passports and screening passengers.

Steve Shaw, vice-president of corporate affairs at the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, says technology is constantly evolving and they are keeping pace with what’s available. “Security is something that you have to keep working at,” he says. “There are always ways to improve.”

Speeding up checking in

The U.S. is, of course, beefing up their security measures quickly. At Oakland International Airport, the latest advance in luggage checking was launched in February, but hardly anyone saw it. Behind the check-in counter for Southwest Airlines, there were four machines, called CTX 9000 scanners. Each is the size of a minivan and the four machines cost about US$16.4 million in total.

However, instead of a security person peering at a screen to see if anything suspicious appears, computer software in the machines matches what it sees to a database of suspicious shapes, densities and combinations of objects.

“There’s a library of algorithms that the machine looks for,” says Steve Hill, a spokesman for Newark-based GE Security, which manufactures the scanners and other security devices used at the airport. “It allows it to match the items in the scan to a list of known threat substances.”

If a scan shows a suspicious item, that bag is then rolled along the conveyor to a nearby room where inspectors give it a closer look.

One of the principal advantages of the system is its ability to process 1,000 pieces of luggage per hour, as opposed to the 250 bags previously checked by hand, chemical swabs, bomb-sniffing dogs and stand-alone scanners, said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes.

Tech-savvy passports

Another technology is explosives trace portal equipment (ETP). ETP or puffer machines, work by blowing a puff of air at a passenger who is walking through an archway that is similar to a metal detector. The air is then analyzed for explosive materials. If the portal’s alarm sounds, the passenger is subjected to additional screening. ETPs can detect plastic and other types of non-metallic explosive substances that cannot be traced by standard equipment.

Even passports are getting high-tech. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has started a test program of embedding passports with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and checking them at the San Francisco and Los Angeles airports. All passports issued after October 2006 will supposedly have these chips, which hold personal data and a digital photo.

This program, costing $1 billion for three years, is in response to similar tests going on in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. The specifications were developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency.

More trials are underway as RFID chips are also being imbedded in special forms for people who frequently cross U.S. borders to work. Tests for these are going on at five border crossings and an evaluation of the program will be done in March 2007 to decide whether to continue it or not.

Camera-ready

While airports are looking at their processes to increase security, airlines are also doing their part.

For example, Delta Air Lines is completing their installation of self-service kiosks equipped with passport readers at major airports. By the end of the year, nearly 1,000 will be in use.

As for more physical screening of passengers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the U.S. has restored optional iris scans into the biometric requirements for enrollment in their Registered Traveler Program. This program allows for faster service at the airport for these pre-approved passengers. The program will be rolled out in 10 to 20 airports throughout the   second half of 2006.

Other developments include three-dimensional face detection that photographs people from six different angles. Designed by Advanced Digital Imaging Research of League City, Texas, the real-time face recognition system is expected to be a big help at security checkpoints for front- and side-view comparisons.

Another form of scanning, called facial fingerprinting, relies on infrared images of unique vascular features. Developed by Infrared identification in Lorton, Va., the system matches maps of the large blood vessels in the face with those in a database of identified criminals and terrorists.

Beards, glasses and other disguises can’t fool the camera and using the technology doesn’t require the subject’s cooperation the way some other biometric identification systems do.

While everyone wants better security, Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s 2005 Travel’s Business Travel Indicator Survey shows that security lines were named by North Americans as having the most negative impact on business travel growth.

However, travel managers believe high-tech security check-in procedures will simply be a normal part of business travel in five years — something you won’t even blink at in 2011.

Diane McDougall (mcdougall@cogeco.ca) is a freelance writer based in Oakville, Ont.

Keeping productive while you wait

Either before or after you go through security, airports are trying to keep you productive while you wait, with sophisticated technology and creature comforts so you can carry on working.

WestJet announced their pay-as-you-go lounges in June. Lauri Feser, director of product development and management says, “WestJet Lounges is an innovative approach to airport lounges. Departing guests have access to convenience and comfort, irrespective of the airline they are travelling with or their class of travel.”

Lounges offer leather seating, complimentary beverages and snacks, TV and flight information screens, access to business facilities including telephones, fax, wireless Internet and newspapers/magazines, all in a quiet and convenient setting.

The lounges are licensed for serving alcohol, at an additional cost. Currently, lounges are available in Ottawa and Winnipeg. Calgary and Vancouver are scheduled to open in September, with plans for expansion in other key cities across Canada.

Guests receive a special reduced rate when they pre-book their lounge access online at Westjet.com. All information, including specific lounge prices, hours of operation and facilities is available online.

Other airlines are also exploring the concept of partnering with like-minded companies to create better lounges. For example, Delta Air Lines and American Express recently unveiled their new PowerStop business centre for passengers of the Delta Shuttle at LaGuardia Airport. It is the airline’s first co-branded space and offers wireless high-speed Internet access, connection to 10 PC workstations and four Macintosh computers, as well as a full-featured VIP lounge.

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