Your tax dollars have funded a three lane roadway past the front door, but if you're picking a traveler up from RDM you won't be allowed to pause along the curb - not even for a moment - without a warning (or ticket!) from the airport police. Instead, you'll need to physically leave the airport grounds, drive a lap around the campus- wasting gas, polluting the air - and come back again. The three-lane roadway in front of the airport will remain empty while you take this small trip. You, like me, might end up paying to park rather than drive around and around - and maybe that's the point.
Though TSA has been up and running for over five years, it still "takes longer to clear security at the small Redmond Airport than at any large city airport," which is a comment I once heard from a major airline flight attendant. As a frequent flyer I, too, am often amazed at how inefficient the Redmond system is - though it appears that employee turnover is almost nil.
Stories of friends and family who have missed flights at Redmond, due to lack of counter help, chaos in the security line, or less-than-accommodating customer service are too ubiquitous to count.
Central Oregon can use as much commerce as it can get; we can't afford to have an airport that runs inefficiently or that deters travelers like myself, who now contemplate a drive over the pass to leave from PDX rather than dealing with a morning of headache at RDM.
Tamara Houston
