Smoother Skies

Right now, there's not much space inside the terminal, and none of the technology many passengers take for granted. Every bag is hand-searched. Every person walks through a magnetic detector. It's not just time-consuming, it's intrusive. Baggage claim is inefficient. Then there's the restaurant situation, where hot food exists only outside the secure waiting area.

With a nod to Johnny Cash, interim airport chief Nick Schiavo is hoping to build a better airport, one piece at a time. Next week, crews are scheduled to install a body-scanning booth that should speed the boarding process and make flying out of the small airport more convenient. It will also give flyers who've paid for the TSA PreCheck program the ability to bypass any lines that have formed.

"Bottom line is to improve the customer experience," Schiavo tells SFR. He's been assessing the airport since former Director Cameron Humphres left last year, and he sees a number of options for making the air travel to and from Santa Fe less painful.

City Council and the mayor have already approved the $20,000 needed to move a wall and install the body scanner. In a few months, they'll spend $100,000 to make more structural changes inside the airport to accommodate a luggage scanner. TSA will foot the bill for the scanners themselves.

As recently as last year, the city was discussing the possibility of building a $36-$40 million airport terminal. The current spending by Schiavo would buy more life from the existing facility in the short term.

"The updates are overdue," explains Northern New Mexico Air Alliance Executive Director Stuart Kirk. His public-private partnership formed to promote air travel to and from Santa Fe, including more direct flights. United Airlines, he says, plans to start a third daily roundtrip to Denver on Saturday, giving the airport six daily commercial flights.

Kirk says improving the existing facility and increasing passenger traffic will better prove the need for a more expensive terminal replacement later.

As Kirk's group has asked passengers about their experience in Santa Fe, he says the lack of technology has come up "almost every time, especially the body scanners. People just are used to airports now having that type of modern equipment. In most airports, the scanning experience is pretty quick."

Schiavo says luggage inspection is currently as rudimentary as it gets: "Right now, the only luggage inspection process is to open a bag and look in. And people are uncomfortable with that."

He also has two ideas to pitch to the governing body that he thinks will help make the traveling experience a little smoother. The first is to replace the old roller system for delivering luggage to the terminal with a carousel that can be loaded outside in a covered space and delivered to passengers waiting inside.

There's only room for about 10 pieces of luggage on the baggage claim right now, and access is severely limited if a traveler spots their bag on the rollers. In some areas, they have to duck under a TV monitor.

Then there's the guy working baggage claim outside. "He can't see inside the building," Schiavo says. "So he just gives [the bag] a good, hard shove. But you could have hands on the other side."

Baggage claim isn't the only part of the airport that gets cramped during busy times. The departure lounge on the other side of the security checkpoint is just barely big enough to handle a full load on the biggest outbound planes.

"Some of the planes now hold 70 people, and we only have, like, 62 seats for people in the waiting area," Schiavo explains. That's usually okay if everything is running on time, he says, but if there's a delay or if airlines want to schedule flights closer together, there's trouble.

The restaurant at the airport has given notice that it's going to go close, however, and Schiavo says he'd like to knock down a wall and expand the secure waiting area by almost 50 percent. His idea is to have prepared sandwiches or burritos ready to sell inside the secure part of the terminal and then, potentially, to have food trucks outside. He doesn't have any commitments yet, but he says some food truck owners are curious about the 300 people a day who move through the airport.

Elsewhere in the city, Economic Development Director Matt Brown says an improved airport experience is in the city's best interest.