European airport security a different ballgame

by Ed Hewitt

updated 2:14 p.m. ET Sept. 17, 2007

Pockets empty, shoes and sweaters off, laptop in the bucket, no liquids — passing through airport security in the United States has become almost as routine as untying and tying your shoes — which is usually the extent of any hardship at U.S. security checkpoints.

Although we may know what airport security rules to expect in the U.S., it can be a whole different ballgame in Europe. On a return trip from Germany on Labor Day weekend, a full plane of passengers on US Airways flight 707 from Munich to Philadelphia found out the hard way — and six times over — that bumrushing security on U.S.-bound trans-Atlantic flights is a fool's game, and you'd best leave it be.

I count myself in that number. Granted, I was trying to board US Airways' Munich-Philadelphia direct flight, which departs late some 65 percent of the time, and we were a day away from a major terrorist arrest in the northern German town of Frankfurt. But after some inquiry I learned that my experience was not exceptional, if not quite the norm. It was an object lesson in how security abroad, particularly in Europe, can be considerably more stringent than in the U.S. — home to Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, and what many natives assume is the birthplace of airport security. It turns out that Europe has been at this much longer than the United States and often takes it much more seriously, and you will definitely notice the differences.

Give yourself time — you'll need it
Six years from the establishment of the TSA in November 2001, many U.S. travelers now push the limits of the recommended two-hour allowance to get to their gates. Sure, we were on our best behavior for a few years, but particularly this past hellish summer at the airport, it was almost expected that someone would try somehow to cut lines all the way through the airport "because my plane leaves in 20 minutes." These days, folks once again arrive at the airport 60 minutes before their flight, and then make it everyone else's problem on the way to the gate.

Had you tried this in Munich last Monday morning, you might still be in Munich today. At check-in for my 12:30 p.m. flight, I got in one of two lines of nine people each at 10:20 a.m. The process included a pre-check-in security shakedown at the entrance to the check-in lines run by two people with laptops without a mouse — they were fingerpadding their way through an entire airplane check-in as six gate agents waited behind them. Talk about a bottleneck.

Once the majority of us got through the bottleneck, four of the six bag check agents disappeared, so now there were once again two people checking all of us in. I completed check-in at 11:32 a.m. It took US Airways over an hour to check in 18 people!

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Why? Well, it's US Airways' Munich flight for one, but this is not necessarily unusual when flying an American airline in some overseas airports. Whereas US Airways' Philadelphia hub has relatively abundant check-in kiosks and counters, Munich has five or six counters, only two or three of which may be open when you're trying to check in. The lesson: Don't assume that because your airline is a giant at home you'll find the same abundance of services abroad.

Secure times six
Subsequently I passed through security, which was fairly straightforward, with a few significant differences. These go to the heart of the reason you need to prepare differently overseas.

1. The main security gates functioned more like a customs inspection; instead of the swarm of people loading bags onto conveyor belts, we were asked to stand behind a line and approach one at a time only after given permission.
2. A security agent then explained how each bag should be put on the conveyor, making for some slow going.
3. I was instructed not to remove my boots or belt, and the metal detector was triggered when I walked through.
4. Of course, the clasps on the boots and belt were the culprit; the agent asked me to remove them and sent them through the X-ray machine alone, and then subjected the boots to a full explosives test.
5. I was given a brusque wand inspection that would have prompted outcries for lawsuits in our litigious country; you wouldn't need a massage after this.
6. Subsequently, my laptop and camera bag were thoroughly rifled by two inspectors, including an explosives test. This took another three or four minutes.

If that seems fairly normal if just a bit aggressive, hang on; a couple hundred meters on was another boarding pass checkpoint. That's four checkpoints so far. Finally, just before the gates, was yet another stop — a full-blown boarding pass and security checkpoint, complete with yet another X-ray machine, conveyor belt, patdown, boots inspection, laptop bag rifling including turning on the cameras and taking photos — that is, the same thing that makes up pretty much the entire U.S. security experience, but here for the second time in one morning!

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Hold on, we're not there yet. Propped up in the middle of the gate seating area was another checkpoint where they were checking boarding passes and passports. You'd think that by this time this would all be sorted, but somehow there were extensive issues at this checkpoint as well. I'd been through so much that morning already that I didn't care to hang around to find out what was going on; no idea what this was about.

So that's three security checks and three flight papers checks, all routine on US Airways' flight 707 from Munich. And finally, there was the gate itself — where my boarding pass was finally taken by the gate agent and I was allowed to walk down the gangway onto the completely full plane.

So by the time I made it onto the plane, I had passed through seven checkpoints:

1. US Airways passenger profile shakedown
2. US Airways baggage check and boarding pass issuance
3. Munich airport general security checkpoint
4. Random boarding pass checkpoint
5. Full-strength pre-gate security and boarding pass checkpoint
6. Inscrutable boarding pass checkpoint
7. Gate boarding pass handover

Try doing all that in 60 minutes.

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