MSP officials: TSA not holding up its end on security staffing as hotel checkpoint closes
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Airport officials decried the closure of one of six checkpoints at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport Monday, saying the Transportation Security Administration reneged on a commitment to keep airport security screening fully staffed.
The TSA says the checkpoint at the Intercontinental Hotel is the least used of the airport’s smaller security operations. The checkpoint opened with the hotel last year. The skyway itself remains open for passengers to leave the airport’s secure area at Concourse C and enter the hotel.
“A safe, efficient, convenient security experience is paramount to everyone who uses this airport,” Metropolitan Airports Commission Chair Rick King said, detailing the commission’s frustrations with the TSA’s decision to temporarily close the checkpoint, then reduce the hours it is open before deciding not to staff it beginning Monday.
“On a daily basis, TSA collaborates with the airlines and airport staff to maximize the effectiveness of our security checkpoint screening operations,” according to a statement from TSA spokesperson Lorie Dankers. She said only 15 people went through the checkpoint on Sunday, its final day of operation. “TSA will deploy its staffing resources to maximize the efficiency of screening operations to ensure full staffing at the busiest checkpoints at MSP.”
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Metropolitan Airports Commission Executive Director Brian Ryks said the skyway cost $24 million in an October letter to the acting head of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration which argued the checkpoint should remain open. The MAC paid for construction using airport fees from passengers.
King said the TSA’s inconsistent hours and closure last December through April meant “the TSA never gave this checkpoint a chance to succeed.”
The MAC chair also said passengers were getting less for the $11 per flight fee for security screening services. “Every single traveler is paying for security screening services that are now being taken away,” King said.
Airport executive director Brian Ryks is scheduled to meet with TSA Administrator David Pekoske in Washington later this week.
Jim Graves, who runs the hotel at the airport, said the checkpoint was a key factor in the hotel’s business plan, enabling guests to stay overnight or use its spa, restaurant and meeting rooms on a daily basis and have quick access to boarding gates.
“I can’t overemphasize the importance of this checkpoint. It’s the reason this hotel was built, to provide this extreme convenience, if you will,” Graves said.
“The number one concern we have for our guests is access.”
He said the hotel’s 240 rooms ran typically run about 80 percent full.
The comments come weeks after the state’s two U.S. senators wrote the TSA to urge a meeting with MAC officials, as well as remarks critical of TSA checkpoint staffing in August.
The TSA’s security director for Minnesota, Cliff Van Leuven said his agency was prepared to handle what is expected to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period ever. “We’ll be good for the holidays,” Van Leuven told the airport commission.
He said every lane at the major checkpoints at Terminal 1 will be open, as will both checkpoints at Terminal 2.