Passengers of charter flights are liable for nearly all of extra costs arising from delays in airport security checks, in response to scientific research conducted by airport security consulting company, Kirschenbaum Consulting.
The findings are in accordance with a one-year in-depth study held at a regional European airport. The consequences indicate that while only 10-15% of scheduled passengers carried prohibited items, 33-50% of charter passengers did so.
Moreover, while only 10% of normal flyers were re-examined by security employees, 33% of charter passengers needed another check.
The research, which included both an ethnographic and time-motion study, also showed that, while charter passengers accounted for under 50%of overall traffic, they were accountable for one more 35% of the final security costs.
Even though the vast majority of passengers go through the safety process right away, passengers who negotiate with the protection personal consume just about 80% of the time spent passing through screening.
“Security has become a key cost component in airports. Passenger behavior and its significance to airport profits shouldn’t be underestimated,” said Prof Alan (Avi) Kirschenbaum , founder and CEO of Kirschenbaum Consulting.
“We can clearly see that delays on the screening check point are directly concerning the kind of passenger involved. This requires paying more attention to the role that the human factor could have on security costs.”
Kirschenbaum added that it may be conjectured that charter passengers were likely to purchase holiday gifts and, given their lower sensitivity to security, prone to be stopped for possessing prohibited items.
Airports estimate that it may take 20-30 seconds for a standard passenger to go through the safety screening process. The research showed, however, that it took those blind to the guidelines one to 2 minutes.
Prof. Kirschenbaum will present the findings on the Passenger Terminal Expo, so they can occur on April 9-11, 2013, in Geneva Switzerland.
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