The key design parameters of checked baggage security screening systems in airports

Abstract

In an effort to meet the checked baggage screening explosive detection deadline established by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, the Transportation Security Administration placed hundreds of explosives detection system machines and thousands of explosives trace detection machines in airport check-in areas across the country as short-term solutions. To effectively integrate explosives detection system machines into the air transportation operations, numerous objectives must be balanced, including equipment cost, passenger and baggage demand, screening capacity, and security effectiveness. As a result, the Transportation Security Administration and its industry partners will need to increasingly rely on computer models, which offer the opportunity to examine the various complexities of the airport environment in a non-intrusive way, and to estimate the operational impact of new security equipment, policies, and procedures. While Transportation Security Administration, along with the airport community, is stimulating research in this area, it remains relatively undeveloped. Thus, the purpose of the research is to identify and evaluate the key design parameters of checked baggage screening, and to develop an analytical model that will determine the optimal number of explosives detection system equipment based on passenger demand levels and security protocols.