Cathie Rochau has been the marketing representative for the past 18 years.
There are currently four airlines operating out of Moline, with eleven non-stop flights (if you count Chicago). American, Delta, United and Allegiant all have flights from Moline.
Cathie’s message was to fly locally. A thriving local airport contributes to a growing economy. When more travelers buy and fly locally, the more air carriers consider the region when planning route expansions to new cities.
Cathie also encouraged everyone to us the True Cost Trip Calculator to see if you really save money by purchasing a lower cost flight at a different airport. The trip calculator will help you determine if you are truly saving money with a lower cost flight after taking other costs into consideration, such as the gas, parking, hotel and other costs potentially incurred. Go to qcairport.com/trip to use the calculator.
Even though Moline is a smaller airport, you should still get there early. Six flights, with approximately 320 people leave between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. This is the busiest time of the day and it takes time to get everyone through the screening process. Arriving 90 minutes early will ensure you don’t miss your flight. Arrive 60 minutes prior to your flight during slower times is adequate.
Jeff Hardacre took the podium after Cathie. He is the TSAs assistant federal security director for the 10 airports of downstate Illinois.
There were 3,957 firearms found in TSA checkpoints in 2017. Jeff made this point to illustrate the importance of arriving early as Cathie had suggested. While specifically looking for IEDs, which are hard to identify, finding a firearm is going to hold up the TSA line. That is 320 people that could potentially miss their flight out of Moline because someone “forgot” they had a gun in their bag or their spouse put it there.
Jeff also talked about improving processes through risk-based security. There are less stringent checks for passengers 12 and younger; passengers 75 and older; active duty military; honor flights; known crew members; and TSA pre-check. You may be selected for TSA pre-check as part of the trusted population criteria. However, you may not be selected each time. You can pay $85, complete an application and be interviewed to obtain pre-check for a five-year period.
Honor flights started on April 26. Over 4,000 veterans on 40+ flights have taken honor flights out of the Moline airport. There are typically over 300 people at the airport to welcome them home when the flight returns. There will be another honor flight in May, a break over the summer and then they will resume in the fall.
There is a blog at TSA.gov. Visit this site to see how many firearms were found, the type of gun and whether it was loaded. There are also threads of questions and comments on various topics that can be informational as well as entertaining.
.png)
