By Joseph Deinlein
The Daily Item
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While anger over ratcheted-up secruity at airports across the nation has prompted threats of protests by angry passengers, travelers at two regional airports have no reason to fear.
Neither the Williamsport nor Wilkes-Barre-Scranton airports have the full-body scanners in place.
Air travelers are protesting new Transportation Safety Administration requirements at some U.S. airports that they must pass through full-body scanners that produce a virtually naked image. The screener, who sits in a different location, does not see the face of the person being screened and does not know the traveler's identity.
Those who refuse to go through the scanners are subject to thorough pat-downs that include agency officials touching the clothed genital areas of passengers.
At Harrisburg International Airport, where the TSA installed full-body scanners over Labor Day, there have been no complaints, said airport spokesman Scott Miller.
"Definitely, it's a legitimate national debate about the right to privacy," Miller said. "But we've seen locally, with the local media talking to passengers what they've experienced, they've not found anybody that's been concerned about the process. Not like you're seeing in New York and Los Angeles."
Wilkes-Barre-Scranton International Airport does not have the body scanners and is operating under the same security check procedures in place before the scanners were introduced. That means travelers are subjected to neither the scrutiny of security staff nor the unwelcome sensation of a thorough pat down if they refuse a scanning.
Airport Director Barry Centini said there has been talk of getting the scanners at some point. In the meantime, the airport isn't going to promote that it doesn't have the scanners as a way to lure passengers interested in more privacy.
"By the time we get the message out, we may have the body scanners here," Centini joked.
The Williamsport Regional Airport also does not have the scanners, but it only handles one airline and about 30 people at a time, said marketing director Dave Frey.
If anything, the airport is seeing an increase in traffic thanks to people traveling from Texas, Louisiana, Montana, Utah and Alaska for Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction work. Travel this year is up 17 percent over last year because of it, Frey said.
Penn Valley
OK, so what about the Penn Valley Regional Airport, which rarely handles anything bigger than a single-prop four-seater plane?
"Nobody's ever posed a question, nor do I have any security concerns," said Jim Taylor, general manager of the airport for Heritage Aviation.
But, that's not to say he wouldn't have the TSA to answer to, at least when it comes to flight lessons. In fact, he recently completed a mound of paperwork for the TSA that would allow a non-U.S. citizen to learn to fly.
"There's no issues with citizenship," he said. "You produce a birth certificate, driver's license or passport and I keep on file here."
Driving a distance?
Planning to go more than 50 miles to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
You'll have more company than last year, according to estimates produced by AAA.
The automobile association predicts 11.4 percent more Americans will travel this year as opposed to last.
And in the Wilkes-Barre region of the state — which includes the Central Susquehanna Valley — an estimated 44,000 people will go a distance at least equal to, if not greater, than the distance between Sunbury and Harrisburg over the holiday weekend.
But wait, you say. The cost of gasoline is about 30 cents more than it was this time last year. And though the economic indicators show the nation is no longer in recession, it sure doesn't feel that way here.
"It's obviously a slow recovery," said AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Rick Remington.
He said the cost of gas pushing $3 will have minimal impact because it is an affordable way to travel. While the affluent have been able to afford travel for the past two years, those with less means have not.
"One thing that stuck out this year," he said "is the lower- and middle-income people are traveling again this year. That 18-to-35 age group is traveling again."
That's what's interesting about travel, he said.
"It's one of the first things to tank when the economy goes sour," Remington said. "When it rebounds, you see more recovery in travel."
Those factors explain why the number of drivers is predicted to go up by about 12 percent, but the number of people traveling by air is predicted to rise 3.6 percent.
