Avoid flights at rush hour

I took my 16-year-old son Ben to the airport recently to catch a flight to Los Angeles to visit friends. US Airways Flight 1 was scheduled to depart Pittsburgh at 9:30 a.m., and at 8:02, we pulled up to the airport.

To avoid problems, I had checked him in online and printed out his boarding pass before we left home. My thought was to drop him off at the curbside check-in (he's 16 after all) and make it back to town in time for a 9:30 appointment. No problem, right?

Wrong.

The line of passengers waiting to turn their luggage over to the three US Airways agents at the curb was at least 50 people long.

Immediately realizing that this wasn't going to be as simple as I had hoped, I left Ben in line to check in, while I went to park the car in the Short Term Lot, where the rate is $1 for the first hour, and $3 per hour after that. An hour should be plenty of time, I thought.

While walking into the terminal, I couldn't help but notice that the line waiting to go through security stretched well into the long corridor that leads to the parking lot.

From the sense of chaos and anxiety, it seemed clear that no one was moving quickly. Though not quite as long as the line for general passengers, the queue for first-class and preferred passengers was also snaking out through the sliding glass doors. (I couldn't help but notice Lynn Swann, who was also looking anxious as he made his way to the end of the preferred passenger line. He also had a flight to make and was in the same fix as everyone else.)

When I went up the escalator and outside, Ben had barely moved in the line. With the time approaching 8:25, it was clear that waiting there wasn't going to work. So we went inside to the US Airways counter.

The line of passengers waiting at the electronic check-in kiosk snaked completely out of the enclosure meant to contain it. People were moving, but I realized that if we waited in that line to check him in, he'd have no chance of getting through the security line downstairs in time to catch his flight.

So I left him there with his documents and two bags while I went down to stand in the security line.

That line was now growing so quickly that just getting to the end of it was something of a challenge. At 8:35, I walked past a posted sign advising it was a 35-minute wait from that point to the security checkpoint. My feeling was something like being at Disney World on a peak holiday weekend.

Fearing there was no way Ben would make his flight, I waited, along with several thousand other passengers. Two women in front of me had a 9:10 flight, which they certainly missed, and were now hoping to make an 11 a.m. departure.

Although most people in line seemed resigned to the wait, there was plenty of ambient anxiety and stress. Passengers who had allowed themselves 90 minutes to make their plane were shocked to discover it might not be enough. One irate passenger was swearing at the airport, vowing he'd never fly through Pittsburgh again.

To be fair, the security procedures seemed to be streamlined, all the security lines were manned by TSA personnel, and passengers were moving efficiently through the procedure. It's just that way too many people were trying to get through this bottleneck.

Standing in line offered me ample opportunity for reflection. Perhaps the airport could provide more security lines, but where would they put them? And while the security bottleneck isn't the fault of US Airways or any of the other carriers at the airport, the long lines at baggage check-in are another matter entirely.

It is also worth noting that since US Airways has reduced the number of departures from Pittsburgh, eliminating what it perceived as marginal flights, the carrier has effectively concentrated the remaining passenger traffic within narrow time windows.

This reduction in service is already dramatic, but it will soon get a lot worse. We all know there are fewer flights, but the actual numbers are illuminating.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, US Airways and its affiliates operated 542 flights a day from Pittsburgh International, 267 of which were larger mainline planes.

During this summer's peak travel season, the carrier is operating 107 mainline flights, 122 regional jets, 53 wholly owned turbo-prop flights and 91 affiliate turbo-props flights, for a total of 373 daily nonstop flights to 102 destinations.

Early this week, the airline announced its anticipated schedule for the November through January period. It expects to operate 70 mainline departures a day, 80 regional jet departures, 25 wholly owned turbo-props, and 65 affiliate departures, for a total of 240 daily nonstop flights to 65 destinations.

Although US Airways still figures to be the airport's largest carrier, that represents an approximate 56 percent reduction in overall flights, and an 80 percent reduction in service by the larger, mainline planes.

To make matters worse, those flights will be concentrated in the peak travel periods, which makes staffing the airport's operations even more problematic.

It's a safe bet that this overcrowding issue will be with us for the foreseeable future, forcing adaptations and adjustments in the way we travel.

Fortunately, Ben came down from the luggage check-in just as I was entering the cordoned-off area before the security checkpoint, and he was being processed by 9:05. That is where I left him, as security procedures demand.

He later reported that he had to run to the gate, and they were announcing final boarding just as he got there. The flight departed the gate at 9:35 and actually arrived in Los Angeles about five minutes early. (Ben was also thrilled that Swann was on the same flight.)

Had Ben been forced to go to the end of the security line, he would never have made his flight, which, I suspect, was the fate of too many of the travelers.

At times like this, it's hard to remember what the point of this security is. Does inconveniencing hundreds of paying passengers every day make us any safer? Was there anyone in those lines who represented any kind of danger? I doubt it.

Unfortunately, this situation isn't likely to change for the better during the busy summer travel season. So I offer these recommendations for anyone planning to fly out of Pittsburgh International:

1. On journeys of 300 miles or less, consider taking another form of transportation.

2. If you must fly, avoid booking flights scheduled to depart between 7 and 10 a.m. or 3 and 7 p.m. Unfortunately, following this advice will greatly reduce your flight options.

3. If you must depart during these peak travel hours, get to the airport at least 90 minutes before departure if you don't have luggage, and a full two hours early if you have bags to check. This is especially true if you're on a tight flight schedule, making connections with a cruise ship somewhere, or traveling to a meeting or event you can't miss or be late for.

4. If you can't follow one of the first three recommendations, stay home.

Something is seriously out of whack if getting through the airport takes longer than getting between airports.

Perhaps, if enough people stop flying altogether, it will force the transportation industry and government to figure out ways to make flying less of a crapshoot in terms of scheduling.

Unfortunately, however, the more likely eventuality is that a steep drop in passenger traffic will result in the collapse of several airlines, which won't help anyone except their competition.