We live in an age where threats of global terror must always be on our minds.
So when we learned that the Transportation Security Administration agents who are supposed to keep us safe when we fly failed almost every secret undercover test last year-as pretend terrorists were able to sneak explosives and weapons past airport screeners 67 out of 70 times in dozens of cities-we were more than just concerned. And this year, when the normal influx of spring break travelers so overwhelmed TSA screeners that thousands of passengers missed their flights, we knew that certainly wasn't quite life or death-but it showed that something else must be very wrong with the agency that must serve as a vital protector of our homeland.
And when we realize several of the things we are doing add huge and totally avoidable overloads to our TSA airport screeners, then it becomes clear how we can fix at least part the problem that has become our new harsh reality every time every we travel on an airplane. You'd have thought that just this once even Washington's gridlocked Republicans and Democrats would have to locked arms and raced as one to achieve at least the easiest common sense solutions.
But no. There was, of course, a congressional hearing, where the news highlights weren't about finding facts to solve the problem but just venting steam for the folks back home.
The biggest facts, after all, were already known: TSA airport screeners have been increasingly overwhelmed since most airlines responded to decades of increasing fuel costs by charging passengers fees for every piece of luggage they checked. Starting in 2007, many airlines began charging $20 or more for the first bag checked, $30 or more for the second and much more after that. (Interestingly, Southwest Airlines chose to pursue a passenger-friendly policy, allowing customers to continue to check their luggage for free.) With most airlines charging fees for checked luggage, passengers began carrying far more luggage onto planes-which caused the already overburdened TSA screeners at airport concourses to have to examine many more bags in this busiest of locales. (Airlines began clamping on extra fees for all sorts of essentials that used to be free, including simply reserving a specific seat when buying a ticket.) And as fuel prices plummeted, airlines of course continued charging passengers those fees.
Result: Airline profits are sky high-reaching record levels that far exceed anything since President Jimmy Carter deregulated the airlines back in 1978. Airlines made after-tax profits of $17.9 billion in the first three quarters of 2015 alone.
And predictably, the airlines' baggage fees had one other consequence: TSA says carry-on baggage increased by 27 percent at stations where airlines charge fees for those who check baggage. Meanwhile, Congress-in a move as myopic as it is mind-numbing-cut the funding for TSA screeners in this very time when their burdens sharply increased and the terror threat to our airports increased as never before.
Safeguarding our homeland requires that even the airlines must be willing to carry their own business baggage. President Barack Obama and Congress must tell the airlines to end their fees for checked luggage. Indeed, if it means a modest reregulation of airlines-for the security of our homeland and our passengers-so be it. This month, two senators took the lead by sending a letter to 12 airlines telling them that, for the safety of us all, they should voluntarily do just that. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., sent their letter to officials of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant, JetBlue, Alaska Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin America, Sun Country and Island Air Hawaii.
"We call on airlines to take a smart, common sense step," the senators wrote. " stop charging checked bag fees during the coming summer months, the busiest travel season of the year. Without charges for checking their bags, passengers will be far less likely to carry them on, which snarls screening checkpoints and slows the inspection process."
Our safe-skies solution must start with this down-to-earth two-step reality: Let's firmly limit carry-on baggage. And let's vastly increase the airport backroom screening capabilities-both human and high-tech-of free, checked baggage. Let Republicans and Democrats unite to inaugurate a new era of passenger security with fair profits.