Henderson baggage handling company hurt by FAA directive

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

When operations at McCarran International Airport resume, heightened security measures will include the suspension of remote baggage check-in services.

That's bad news for Certified Airline Passenger Service, the two-year-old Henderson company that has pioneered remote passenger check-ins and has built a network of remote check-in counters.

CAPS, coming off its most successful month, plans to wait out the Federal Aviation Administration mandate for increased security measures that now prevent the company from operating, spokesman Jim Gentleman said.

"Obviously we're disappointed, but we have to abide by FAA regulations and policies," Gentleman said. "We still believe checking in with CAPS is equal to if not more secure than@airline check-in counters."

Gentleman said CAPS had more than 15,000 customers in August. For $6 per person, customers flying on 10 different partnering airlines handed off their bags at CAPS counters at one of 15 resort and car rental office locations and were able to obtain a boarding pass for a flight. The service, certified by the FAA, was promoted as a means to reduce airport congestion and was under consideration to be developed in Chicago as well as Las Vegas.

Gentleman, vice president of marketing and sales for CAPS, said the company's current plan is to keep all of its 120 employees on the payroll and use the down time for additional training. He also said the company could offer its employees to assist McCarran International Airport with its increased security responsibilities.

He said the company has not had any discussions with the FAA about whether the agency could give the company special permission to run, since it operates under an amendment to existing FAA security procedures.

He would not speculate on how long the company could wait out the FAA ban on remote check-in services. In previous situations in which top-level security protocols were implemented in the early to mid-1990s, heightened procedures were in effect for about two months.

"It all depends on the time frame," Gentleman said. "We've had discussions internally on what happens if it's more than a week or more than a month. Obviously, the longer it goes, the more difficult it becomes for us."