The TSA will keep its checkpoints at 150 smaller airports, despite studying possibly eliminating them to save money, the head of the agency said Wednesday. TSA administrator David Pekoske said that the agency studied the idea of closing checkpoints as merely a budget exercise, but that the risks didn't outweigh the potential benefits. The idea explained that TSA could drop federal staffing at airports with planes seating up to 60 passengers and save U$115m per year. Those airports serve about 10,000 passengers per day and require nearly 1,300 TSA workers, who could be shifted to larger airports. But airport officials and security experts worried about risks of no screening. Passengers would have to be screened when connecting at larger airports, which would require airports and airlines to reconfigure terminals. <br/>
general
The 3 largest US airlines said they are in the process of amending their systems to address Chinese requests over how they refer to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, after Chinese state media reported that they had yet to complete revisions in time for a Thursday deadline. The Global Times Thursday singled out Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines in a report which said that the companies had yet to meet requirements. The CAAC had originally set a deadline for July 25. However, it said last month that the 4 US airlines had asked for another extension as it perceived their amendments as "incomplete". Checks Thursday showed Delta, United and American now list only Taipei's airport code and city, but not the name Taiwan, while there is no mention of Taipei or Taiwan on Hawaiian's website. <br/>