Utah air travelers, already facing problems getting to Salt Lake International Airport in the face of road construction projects, may find their flights delayed once they finally arrive.
But it's only for two weeks and it's for a very good cause: fighting terrorism.Effective Tuesday, the nation's domestic airlines began a program scheduled to run through May 19 in which they will check to make sure every bag in an airliner's cargo hold is matched to a passenger on board the plane.
If the match isn't made, the luggage will be removed.
Kip Smith, spokesman for Delta Air Lines, Utah's dominant air carrier, confirmed that Salt Lake City is among those scheduled for the test program, but he declined to say which flights will be affected.
"We're doing that on purpose," Smith told the Deseret News. "We want it to provide an accurate reflection as to what the programs does or doesn't do to the system and the passengers."
Smith said the airlines have the prerogative to stop the program early "if things get hairy," meaning a massive delay in flights.
Beth Harbin, spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said the Dallas-based low-cost carrier is participating in the program but said "I can't go into details," including whether Salt Lake International will be part of that airline's test program.
The test is being coordinated with the airlines by the Federal Aviation Administration.
While the program will likely cause delays in the targeted flights, it is not expected to jam up the entire system, said David A. Fuscus, spokesman for the Air Transport Association in Washington, D.C., which represents the domestic air industry.
"The carriers are trying to move people as quickly as possible with minimum delays," Fuscus said.
Smith said the bag matching program is the same one used on international flights. Each bag has a tag number that is associated with persons of record on a computer. When the passenger boards a plane, it's noted on the computer. If someone has checked a bag but doesn't get on the plane, the bag must be found and taken off.
"That's why we ask international travelers to come to the airport and check in a couple of hours early," said Smith.
But domestic travelers won't know ahead of time whether their flights will be affected by the test so they are unlikely to show up early. That will mean delayed takeoffs.
"We do anticipate that some flights will be delayed and we're trying to warn people as they come to the airport and check in," said Smith. "At that time they will be told that theirs is one of the test flights."
Contacted Wednesday morning, with the program in place only a day, Smith said that most passengers have so far been understanding of the delays.
After the test period is over, the data will be gathered and examined for feasibility - billions of bags are carried annually on domestic air flights.
"We're looking to see if it's possible," said Fuscus. "We quite frankly don't think it would work . . . the impact of what a 100 percent bag match would do to the system is probably severe."
Smith agreed: "If it's so cumbersome that it snarls up the works and makes air travel inconvenient for passengers as well as unprofitable for the airline, there has to be some common ground reached. But safety is always No. 1, of course."
Smith declined to decribe the criteria for which flights will be targeted for bag matching. "That would be getting into specifics. All I can say is that it is a planned test."
In other words, flights are being singled out according to certain criteria, not as the result of random selection. But Smith said the "rhyme and reason" for why a specific flight is selected "may make no sense to the public."
He said the program is being driven by the Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. "They are working through the FAA to get it done. It sounds like they will be the authority," said Smith.
The commission was formed by the White House last year following the still-unsolved downing of TWA Flight 800. It has recommended "positive bag matching" for all domestic flights.