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TSA: Plans afoot to federalize Tinian airport
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Posted on Jan 09 2005
The Transportation Security Administration is developing a plan to federalize and prepare the Tinian airport for international flights.
Plans are underway to staff the airport with federal screeners and equip it with a walk-through metal detector and a baggage X-ray unit, among other security machines, said interim TSA-Saipan federal security director Stanford Miyamoto.
Once the plan is in place, the local TSA office will submit it to its Washington, D.C. headquarters for approval and processing, Miyamoto said.
While he declined to give a specific time frame for the process, Miyamoto said the federal agency will try to complete the airport federalization “as soon as possible.”
“Federalizing security at the Tinian airport is an ongoing process. We will be focusing on that until it’s accomplished. We understand that this project is important for economic and security reasons,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Transportation had set federalization of airport security as a requisite for approving China Southern Air’s application to operate direct flights between Tinian and China.
Miyamoto said he did not anticipate an immediate need to hire full-time airport screeners for Tinian airport. Citing his discussions with officials of Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino, which charters the flights, he said the China-Tinian service will likely be operated only twice weekly at the beginning.
Currently, China Southern Airlines is operating charter services between Saipan and two Chinese cities: Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The U.S. Transportation Department recently granted the airline a permanent flight permit for the routes.
A regular flight schedule would allow the airline additional flights to add extra flights on a seasonal basis, depending on the consumer demands.
