Editorial: Reassuring unnerved travelers

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 9:15 a.m.

On Thursday President Bush released his plan to beef up security at the nation's airports, hoping to convince jittery air travelers that it's safe to fly. A fear of flying has been a principal reason why the nation's economy has been struggling since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The number of passengers has dropped precipitously because too many people are worried that airline security isn't tough enough to prevent a recurrence of the terrorism that cost more than 6,000 people their lives in a single day. At least 100,000 airline employees have been laid off because of the lack of passengers, and there has been a ripple effect throughout the economy. When people are afraid to fly that also hurts all the cities that rely heavily on tourism for their sustenance, which includes Las Vegas.

Most of the president's short- and long-term proposals are sound. Bush is urging governors to temporarily call up National Guard units to help protect U.S. airports; he wants to spend $500 million to retrofit planes with new security measures, including the fortification of cockpit doors to deny access from the cabin, and he is in favor of expanding the use of armed federal air marshals aboard commercial planes.

The president also said that the federal government should play a larger role in the oversight of airport security personnel, a departure from existing practices. Currently the airlines pay for airport security, which they contract out to private firms. That has resulted in little training and poor wages for these employees, which has meant that too often this private workforce isn't adequate to meet the challenge of providing top-flight security. Bush instead would put the federal government in charge of airport security, including the purchase of equipment. Federal workers would manage the operations, but Bush is proposing that these security workers still remain employed by private security firms. But it doesn't make sense to go halfway as the president suggests. The federal government, not private security firms, should be in charge of the incredibly i mportant responsibility of ensuring air safety.

Congress and the president already have approved a $15 billion bailout for the airline industry, but in order to get the planes full again passengers will need to feel comfortable about safety -- and that requires getting stringent air safety measures put in place immediately.