New Baggage Screening System to Be Tested This Weekend
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: New Year's Eve travelers are returning home today, putting the government's new mandatory baggage screening system to the test. CNN's Patty Davis is at Reagan National Airport today in Washington. Hi, Patty.</s>PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. Well, no major holdups here on the bag screening front at Reagan National. As you can see behind me, there's absolutely no line right now. And it's a pretty busy time here at the airport. So so far so good. The Transportation Security Administration started screening bags, 100 percent of them, on December 31. Two million bags a day is what they will be looking at. Now, this weekend could be the real test, as you said. Now, that is because travelers are returning from their Christmas and their New Year's holidays, and the majority of bags will be screened by the big bomb detection machines. Also, trace detection machines, those are the back-ups in some cases. And they're actually being used on their own at some airports. The airports that weren't able to meet the deadline, in fact, to get those big bomb detection or trace detection machines in place will, in fact, be using hand-held -- hand searches or even bomb-sniffing dogs. So you're not going to see the same thing at every single airport. It's different, although the Transportation Security Administration says it's just as effective -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Patty, let's switch gears for a minute. Now, I'm just dying to know what passengers are saying to you, if anything, about America West and the fact that they're going to start, tomorrow, I believe, charging for meals on some of those flights. What are they saying?</s>DAVIS: That's right. Three bucks for a snack box, $10 for a chicken Kiev dinner. Now, these are on flights that they'll be offering that normally did not offer food before. This is a low cost airline, normally it's peanuts or pretzels. And you wouldn't normally get a meal. So I just happened to have a passenger here, in fact, Tyler Willard (ph) who will tell us what she thinks. What do you think? Would you buy a $3 snack box or $10 chicken Kiev dinner? Is it worth it to you?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I probably wouldn't, but then I pack my own snacks when I travel anyway.</s>DAVIS: Right. So what did you think when you first heard about this? Is it a good deal, a bad deal? Does it remind you of the fact that airlines don't give food anymore?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think it depends on the quality. You know, for me, it seemed like a way for the airlines to operate more cost efficiently and maybe prevent some waste. In that case, I think it's good, because a lot of people like me get a meal, but don't eat it anyway.</s>DAVIS: And you do expect -- you said you're going to Anaheim today. You do expect to get a meal on America West that you're not going to have to pay for, but you're not going to eat it?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably not.</s>DAVIS: All right, thanks a lot. Well, this is a low cost airline that is going to start doing this week, starting to offer meals that you can buy. Northwest Airlines, a full-service carrier, is, in fact, studying this idea. I also talked to American Airlines who said they've looked at this idea and they have ruled it out. They say it would cost them too much money. Back to you, Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Beef jerky and an apple, three bucks. Patty Davis from Reagan National Airport, thank you.