The cost of airport security: The passenger dilemma

The cost of providing security in airports, especially in facilitating passenger throughput, has risen despite efforts to upgrade training and technology. The classic measure of passenger throughput assumes passengers are passive cogs in a carefully designed security matrix to optimize output. This perspective does not take into account passenger behavior, especially passenger negotiations during the screening process. To both clarify this social contextual process and estimate its differential costs on security screening, a case study emergent from the BEMOSA research project was arranged in an airport where both an ethnographic and ‘time-motion’ study were conducted. The results clearly showed the extent of negotiations that take place and the type of passenger most associated with delays in the “ideal†throughput scenario. Calculating direct costs of manpower associated with security screening of passengers and the different throughput times led to the conclusion that even though the “good passengers†, those who pass through the security process in the minimum time, are the bulk of passenger throughput, “problematic†passengers who negotiate make up the bulk of the costs. These findings highlight the dilemma faced by security managers but also provide a window of opportunity to seek appropriate solutions.