Airport delays feared with body scanners

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. airport security lines will lengthen and terminals will become more congested with the coming of body scanners, airport officials predict.

Even though the U.S. Transportation Security Administration says the scanners won't significantly increase waits at security lines, some airport managers and the International Air Transport Association, an airline group, disagree, USA Today reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said the full-body scanners, which see through passengers' clothing to detect hidden weapons, are much larger than traditional metal detectors and take five times longer to get a single passenger through.

"Those machines have a footprint that we don't have the space for," Tim Anderson, operations chief at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, told the newspaper.

"Certain airports just don't have the real estate" for the scanners, warned Christopher Bidwell, security chief for the Airports Council International.

The IATT's Steve Lott added that the scanners "would lead to significant passenger delays at the checkpoint."

But TSA spokesman Greg Soule said the extra time it will take passengers to get through the scanners shouldn't create backups because lines now are slowed by passengers putting carry-on items through X-ray machines.