Airport security costs skyrocket

Apr 10, 2002 12:00 PM

Congressional and aviation industry officials say the money spent on airport security upgrades in 2002 could cost more than triple the budgeted amount. The estimated cost of the security upgrades could reach $6 billion.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has already asked the Bush Administration to ask Congress for an additional $4.4 billion in funding, which will result in a total budget of more than $6 billion. In a speech last month, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said the TSA will be bigger than the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Border Patrol combined. He added that the agency may hire more than 50,000 employees, a 25 percent increase above estimates.

Congress created the TSA in November 2001, and imposed an additional fee added to airline tickets to cover the cost of security upgrades. The fee should only generate about $1 billion.

"There are a number of people studying this in federal government, and they are having a hard time admitting to themselves what it's going to cost," American Association of Airline Executives president Charles Barclay told The Chicago Tribune. "If we take all that money away from runway and taxiway improvements, we'll find that we have a security system, but we can't handle the traffic."

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