December 05, 2001
Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority Offers To Provide 100% Screening Of Checked Baggage At Lehigh Valley International Airport

Contact: Susan J. Kittle, Business Development Manager
Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority
1-800-FLY-LVIA

Lehigh Valley, PA - In a letter to Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority (LNAA) Executive Director George F. Doughty offered to put in place within 30-days a manual screening system for all checked baggage at Lehigh Valley International Airport.

The program would be operated by LNAA using its own employees.

In his letter Doughty stated "From our perspective, improving aviation security by fully screening all checked baggage is the most effective measure we could implement to combat aviation terrorism, and provide a sense of comfort to the traveling public that is based on real security improvements. . .we are ready to assist DOT in meeting the 60-day checked baggage screening requirement of the new statute, and help in any other way we can to assure the safety of travelers."

Lehigh Valley International Airport is located near Allentown, Pennsylvania and serves a twelve county area with a population of 2.5 million people. The Airport is easily accessible from communities in eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey.

December 4, 2001

Hon. Norman Y. Mineta
Secretary of Transportation
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 Seventh Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590

Re: Use of Airport Personnel to Satisfy /Statutory Requirement
for Screening of All Checked Baggage at All U.S.
Airline-Served Airports by January, 2002

Dear Mr. Secretary:

The Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority (LNAA), the proprietor of the Lehigh Valley International Airport (LVIA), fully supports your efforts to improve aviation security and, specifically, to implement in a timely fashion all the provisions of the newly-enacted Aviation and Transportation Security Act (P.L. 107-71, November 19, 2001). LVIA is located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and serves a region of approximately 2.5 million people. It handles one million passengers per year.

As you know, Congress wants all reasonable steps to be taken by the Department to implement the new statutory requirement for the screening of all checked baggage at all 423 airports with scheduled airline service by EDS machines, positive passenger bag match, manual inspections, and/or other technologies, within 60 days from the statute's enactment (January 18, 2002).

We urge you to consider using local airport staff for checked baggage screening during this interim period before the Federal Government takes over passenger and baggage security with its own personnel.

We stand ready to provide airport employees, supervised by our police officers, to undertake the checked baggage mandate at this airport. I believe that other airports would be similarly helpful if you were to pursue this option.

Ideally, LNAA-supplied personnel probably would serve as agents of the Federal Government in performing this important screening function. A short Memorandum of Agreement between the parties as to responsibilities and cost reimbursement could be negotiated without delay or complexity. We would be prepared to put the system in place within 30-days of the signing of such an Agreement.

As you know, positive bag match, while permitted under the law, would not be effective against suicide attacks, and could be more disruptive to the system than checked bag screening. From our perspective, improving aviation security by fully screening all checked baggage is the most effective measure we could implement to combat aviation terrorism, and provide a sense of comfort to the traveling public that is based on real security improvements.

We recognize that manual searches at all airports might be difficult because of passenger volumes, but a system operating at LVIA and other volunteer airports would demonstrate the potential feasibility of a national program.

Again, we are ready to assist DOT in meeting the 60-day checked baggage screening requirement of the new statute, and help in any other way we can to assure the safety of air travelers.

Very truly yours,

George F. Doughty
Executive Director