Regional air travelers' dismay over long lines at Pittsburgh International Airport have been confirmed by a survey of major airports by the Transportation Security Administration.

Waiting in long lines to clear security check points remains a hassle at just about every airport. But it is especially frustrating for people flying out of Pittsburgh to find that wait times in much larger and busier airports - including Chicago's O'Hare, New York's La Guardia and at Los Angeles's airport - are significantly shorter.

Monday morning waits, generally, a very busy time, are about 45 minutes at Pittsburgh's airport. For travelers flying out of O'Hare, the security check wait is just 28 minutes. The same wait in Los Angeles is 25 minutes and Atlanta's busy airport only averages 32-minute wait times.

Several factors are to blame for the waiting woes in Pittsburgh. Air travel passenger volume has returned to pre-9/11 levels across the country, and the arrival of discount carrier Southwest Airlines has been credited with bringing more people to the airport.

Complicating the increased volume of people using the airport is the physical constraints posed by the airport's single checkpoint area in the Landside terminal.

Other major airports spread out the security checkpoints to shorten wait times. Chicago has 14 and Los Angeles has 11. Pittsburgh's single point of security clearance, even with eight lanes of inspection stations, is being blamed for the long wait times.

Airport officials are not happy with the long waits and know they threaten to discourage air travel. Significant improvements will apparently involve a multimillion dollar construction project and that is not expected to happen for a year or so. Until then, airport management is considering adding five more security lanes at the airport's unused commuter terminal.

Just about anything done to help Pittsburgh's worst-in-the-nation security-wait-line status would be welcome by local travelers and would prevent the increased traffic volumes from dropping.