<B> Washington Wire</B>
By Barbara Cook, Washington Correspondent
<B>$100M Airport Security</B>
The Federal Aviation Administration will buy 151 airport security devices with the $100 million Congress recently appropriated for that purpose. The agency said it has contracted for 21 CXT-5500 units for $18.9 million from InVision Technologies Inc. of Newark, Calif., and 135 Ionscan 400s for $6.2 million from Barringer Instruments Inc. of New Providence, N.J. The CTX-5500 is a bulk explosives detection system that uses CAT scan technology to inspect checked bags. The Ionscan 400 is a device that can detect minute amounts of explosives on carry-on items. Checked baggage equipment already has been installed at more than 30 airports, while the explosives detectors for carry-on bags are being used at more than 50 airports.
<a name="2"><B>U.S., U.K. Discuss Talks</B>
U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Rodney Slater and U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, meeting in Washington, D.C., in mid April, will discuss the prospects for resuming aviation negotiations. While in London recently, Slater fielded questions from British reporters about when the two countries will restart the stalled talks. "It was shared with us that the British government would soon respond to some of the questions that we have raised in formal negotiations," Slater said.
<a name="3"><B>ATA Studies New Entrant Facilities</B>
An Air Transport Association study of 41 major U.S. airports showed that nearly 25 percent or 763 of the total 3,093 gates at these facilities are available for use by airlines wishing to start new service. The study breaks down each airport's gates by the categories of exclusive use, preferential use, common use and gates available for use by others.
Meanwhile, the Air Carrier Association of America called on DOT to eliminate practices in which would-be entrants "are virtually locked out of many airports because terminal gates and other needed facilities are monopolized by the large airlines and their commuter and foreign codeshare partners." DOT officials did work with charter carrier Sun Country Airlines and United Airlines to get gate space at Minneapolis, one of the nation's most dominated hubs. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission said last week it will provide preferential use of two gates for Sun Country, starting scheduled service June 1.