TIA's welcome mat: long, crowded lines

International travelers must pass through the INS before entering the country. Construction to enlarge TIA's facility is under way. But officials say things will get worse before improving.

[Times photo: Thomas M. Goethe] International travelers such as these Monday afternoon at Tampa International Airport can wait hours before being checked by U.S. Immigration officers.

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 2, 2000

TAMPA -- A cattle pen is less crowded.

A British Airways flight from London dumped 387 passengers Monday at the international arrivals terminal at Tampa International Airport. Most had to be screened by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, so the line ran back and forth a dozen times and stretched up a hallway a city block long.

A Northwest Airlines flight from Jamaica arrived minutes later with 150 aboard.

Suddenly, 537 people were trying to get through the process of entering the United States in a facility inadequate to handle a third that number. It happens every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, shortly after 5 p.m. in the basement of Airside F.

A British Airways 777 and a Northwest Airbus 320 arrive almost on top of one another. Construction to enlarge the facility has squeezed its space to half what it used to be, and officials say it will get worse before it gets better.

Entering U.S. citizens are directed to a line that bypasses INS and takes them to the carousel where they can pick up their baggage and head to customs.

But it can take a foreign national more than an hour to clear the hurdles, far more time than it takes Americans in most foreign countries.

"It has been a federal requirement forever that we interview every foreign national coming into the country to find out why they are here and whether they have a right to be here," said Ron Johnson, port director for INS. "The U.S. government treats its visitors less graciously than other countries treat us."

An American traveler agreed.

"It doesn't give a very good first impression to people coming into this country," said Hester Chace of Cortez, Fla., a British Airways passenger who started her travel day in Sweden.

Problems escalated quickly on Monday. The Northwest flight was due in first at 5:16 p.m. British Airways was next at 5:25 p.m.

"If Northwest passengers come into the room first, it's much better," said Johnson. "A larger percentage of the Northwest passengers are U.S. citizens, and have less luggage because they've only been away a few days. But if BA gets in first, there are a lot of foreign nationals, and everybody has bigger bags and lots more of them because their trip is maybe three weeks. Then it really backs up, for us first, and then for customs."

And the British Airways flight is often early, beating the Northwest flight to the gate.

"If they are just a few minutes ahead of Northwest, they often defer and let Northwest go first, because they know it will speed up the process for everyone," Johnson added.

But on Monday, as luck would have it, British Airways arrived well ahead of Northwest because Northwest's landing was delayed by the departure of Air Force One, carrying President Clinton from a Tampa visit.

That could have been a good thing, allowing INS, Customs and U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors to clear a lot of London passengers before the Montego Bay passengers arrived.

But a violent thunderstorm and a lightning alert delayed delivery of baggage to the terminal by more than half an hour. Northwest passengers were filing in while British Airways passengers were waiting for their first pieces of luggage.

British Airways passengers had been warned of construction delays while they were in the air, and most seemed to take the situation better than airport and airline officials. "We have incorporated warnings about this in flight briefings," said Carole Marquetty, station manager for British Airways. Marquetty looked at the sea of humanity surge forward as bags started arriving. "There are a lot of bodies down here in a very small space," she said.

Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority agreed.

"It is a mess," Miller said.

During construction, INS interview stations were reduced from eight to six, and will be reduced again to four, before construction on the $3.1-million project ends in January. Then there will be 12 stations.

There is only one luggage belt between INS and Customs, so when two flights arrive together, as they did on Monday, bags are commingled. After construction there will be two belts, each larger than the existing conveyor. Flights can be handled separately.

The pass-through from the baggage area to customs is only wide enough to allow two people to pass at a time. The bottleneck causes a backup all the way into the luggage conveyor.

After going through customs, all passengers put their bags on a second belt to the main terminal.

This even confused Hester Chace.

"I have no idea where my luggage is now," she said after trudging up an escalator forced to a stop by the passing thunderstorm. "If this is confusing me, can you imagine how it is confusing visitors?"

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