Airport wants TSA to open Airmall to public

http://triblive.com/news/2710558-74... alltribstories (TribLIVE News)#axzz28ZMuunmh

Allegheny County’s top aviation official said Saturday he intends to lobby the Transportation Security Administration to relax post-9/11 rules that prevent people without airline tickets from going beyond airport checkpoints.

TSA spokesman Ann Davis said it would be “too burdensome on the agency to offer this opportunity to the general public on a routine basis,” adding visitors would need to have their names screened against government watch lists and be physically screened at checkpoints.

“We have a lot of regulars who say they would love to be able to shop here all the time,” said Cindy Schwarz, manager of Radio Road, a women’s clothing boutique.
Sales revenue at the Airmall plummeted from $90 million in 2001 to $58.4 million last year, according to concessions manager Airmall USA. The restricted access has contributed, along with annual passenger traffic declining from 20 million to 8.3 million in the same span, said Airmall Vice President Jay Kruisselbrink.

 

I'm sure the airport would like to have higher business and sales at the stores but I think something else in that statement says a whole lot more about the condition of our civil aviation infastructure.

 

I can see TSA's case here -- they exist to provide security for abuse airline passengers, not shoppers. The airport & businesses should pick up the tab for screening any additional non-flying shoppers.

This is a great opportunity for private screening.

 

I'm in London at the moment. Travelled up north to Manchester on one of the high speed trains. The train terminals are like airport terminals, shops etc. Not one obvious policeman or security person there. Yet, nothing blew up. You start to realize that the airport security dance is nothing less than a sick fetish.

 

That is an interesting little figure.

Annual passengers have dropped by more than half? I'm sure TSA had nothing to do with it...

 

Holy crud! That bad?

 

Trust me on this: If I had to get through TSA security to go shopping (I don't care how "special" the mall is), I.WOULD.NEVER.SHOP.AGAIN!! I would purchase everything online...kind of like I do now...

 

My wife would, if the only shoe stores left were airside.

 

Wasn't/isn't PIT a US Airways hub? US has been through a bankruptcy and a merger since 2001. I'm sure TSA is a major factor, but there's more to it than just TSA.l

 

When the new terminal in PIT opened almost exactly 20 years ago, it was a whole new concept. Instead of just one company having the concession contract and operating vaguely similar stores and restaurants with poor selections and high prices, you actually had something that was kind of like a mall. It was a great deal for travelers, but I don't think I saw a lot of people there as a destination in and of itself. Perhaps if you were picking up or dropping off someone and had some time to kill? And that's if PIT could support the O&D traffic.

Even if you lived in Moon Township, there's no way you would go to the airport, pay for parking, take a long people mover ride to the landside terminal, clear security (let's pretend this is 9/10/11 security), ride the train to the airside terminal and then go shopping. That's just nuts to think enough people will do that to support retail operations beyond air travelers. Ignoring all the shopping options in the suburbs of greater Pittsburgh, just 15 minutes up Route 60 from PIT there's the Beaver Valley Mall that has seen major renovations in the last 15 years, including a new anchor store, along with other new big box retailers in the direct vicinity.

What really happened was political gamesmanship between US Airways and the Allegheny County Airport Authority ten years ago that doomed PIT, and neither side was innocent of wrongdoing. Now the Airport Authority has a financial albatross hanging around it's neck, and is trying to make up for the shortfall by doing things like canceling long standing ground leases at Allegheny County Airport, forcing hangar owners to tear down their buildings and move away.

I feel sorry for the PIT airport retail tenants that got suckered in by the Airport Authority in the last ten years, but their plight really has nothing to do if the TSA allows people past the checkpoint without a ticket or not.