Screeners to be laid off at JWA

Deepa Bharath

The federal government will cut the number of baggage screeners in

the airport by about 14% beginning later this month, officials said.

The decision to slash 45 jobs at John Wayne Airport and 6,000 in

airports nationwide comes in the wake of budgetary concerns, said

Brian Turmail, spokesman for the Transportation Security

Administration in Washington, D.C.

The job cuts will gradually begin by the end of the month and will

be completed near the end of September, he said.

“We based the number of positions to be eliminated on a number of

factors,” Turmail said. “We did an airport-by-airport analysis and

matched that to the number of checkpoints, peak times and so on.”

The cuts will save the federal government more than $30 million

this fiscal year and about $288 million during the next year, he

said.

But the reduction in the number of screeners will not affect

security in any way, Turmail said.

“We simply had to balance our job, which is to provide security

with being stewards of public funds,” he said.

Federal officials will also monitor wait times around the country

to make sure passengers are not left high and dry, Turmail said.

“We understand that there are times when there’s seasonal traffic

in several cities,” he said. “For example, during the skiing season

in Alaska, we’ll make sure that there are enough screeners at those

airports to ensure reasonable waiting times.”

Turmail said they have the “ability to move around people as and

when necessary.”

John Wayne Airport has little to do with the security

administration’s decisions, said Ann McCarley, the airport’s

spokeswoman.

“Our main concern is that it does not have any adverse effects on

our passengers,” she said. “But we’re confident that the TSA will

evaluate their staffing levels constantly to make sure that doesn’t

happen.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.