US: Your Thanksgiving airport slog is about to get a little better
US airlines grapple with a lopsided reality: While a huge amount of revenue flows from a small pool of sky warriors, the vast majority of customers pony up for a ticket just once a year. This time of year. That annual, massive airborne migration begins this weekend as Thanksgiving approaches, and it will come just in time to test new, automated security-screening technology at three of the nation’s busiest airports. The carriers’ trade group, Airlines for America, predicts that 27.3m people will fly over the 12 days it counts as the Thanksgiving travel period, a 2.5% increase from 2015. The new systems, which are likely to spread nationwide in the coming years, aim to speed you on your way even faster and avoid pileups such as those that brought airports to a standstill last spring. Delta and the TSA launched the first such system in Atlanta earlier this year and claim that the automated security lanes—ASLs in TSA lingo—move about 30% more passengers in a given period, compared with the traditional ones. The lanes have a parallel automated conveyor system that removes the need for staff to shuttle empty bins back to the queue. United Continental and American Airlines, with the TSA, also announced new ASLs at Chicago O’Hare International Airport this week. American has completed two new lanes at Terminal 3. The ones for United, in Terminal 1, include lanes for people enrolled in the TSA PreCheck program. United opened some new lanes at Los Angeles International Airport in October and planned to open some at its Newark Liberty International Airport hub in New Jersey before the Thanksgiving rush. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, which vies with O’Hare for the title of busiest, is also adding several security lanes over the next six months, including one expected to open by next week.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2016-11-21/general/us-your-thanksgiving-airport-slog-is-about-to-get-a-little-better
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US: Your Thanksgiving airport slog is about to get a little better
US airlines grapple with a lopsided reality: While a huge amount of revenue flows from a small pool of sky warriors, the vast majority of customers pony up for a ticket just once a year. This time of year. That annual, massive airborne migration begins this weekend as Thanksgiving approaches, and it will come just in time to test new, automated security-screening technology at three of the nation’s busiest airports. The carriers’ trade group, Airlines for America, predicts that 27.3m people will fly over the 12 days it counts as the Thanksgiving travel period, a 2.5% increase from 2015. The new systems, which are likely to spread nationwide in the coming years, aim to speed you on your way even faster and avoid pileups such as those that brought airports to a standstill last spring. Delta and the TSA launched the first such system in Atlanta earlier this year and claim that the automated security lanes—ASLs in TSA lingo—move about 30% more passengers in a given period, compared with the traditional ones. The lanes have a parallel automated conveyor system that removes the need for staff to shuttle empty bins back to the queue. United Continental and American Airlines, with the TSA, also announced new ASLs at Chicago O’Hare International Airport this week. American has completed two new lanes at Terminal 3. The ones for United, in Terminal 1, include lanes for people enrolled in the TSA PreCheck program. United opened some new lanes at Los Angeles International Airport in October and planned to open some at its Newark Liberty International Airport hub in New Jersey before the Thanksgiving rush. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, which vies with O’Hare for the title of busiest, is also adding several security lanes over the next six months, including one expected to open by next week.<br/>
