STAR-BULLETIN / 2002
In October 2002, the Transportation Security Administration began staffing checkpoints at Honolulu Airport. Budget woes will cause up to 220 screeners to go part-time come January.
Isle airport screeners’
work hours to be cut
Due to budget constraints, an estimated 110 to 220 screeners at Honolulu Airport will be converted from full-time to part-time status in January.
"We still don't know yet exactly how many screeners will be affected," said Sidney Hayakawa, federal security director for the Transportation Security Administration's operations at Honolulu Airport, who confirmed the national policy order.
Hayakawa said he has been ordered to convert a minimum of 20 percent to a maximum of 40 percent of his 550 screeners to part-time status.
It could not be determined yesterday how staffing at neighbor island airports will be affected.
Last September, when Congress balked at the size and budget of the TSA, about 6,000 of the nation's 55,600 screeners were laid off, which caused longer lines at some airports. Since then, more than 240 screeners from all of Hawaii's airports were laid off or left through attrition.
"The problem is that we are already very shorthanded, and following this nationwide policy will only prove how shorthanded we are," Hayakawa said.
He said the TSA must already recognize that Honolulu has a shortage because it has given the airport 15 additional full-time screeners from Guam for five days during the peak holiday travel season.
He said they have also been authorized to use overtime and administrative staff during the holiday peak.
Hayakawa could not say how this might affect lines and waits for passengers.
Hayakawa said the federal agency hopes to save money by staffing around peak periods.
For example, if traffic is heavy from 7 to 9 p.m. but slow until 11 p.m., the checkpoints can be staffed with a mix of part-timers and full-timers so that checkpoints are not heavily staffed at slow periods.
The TSA was created in September 2001 to provide greater security at U.S. airports after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
