“We’re deploying additional k-9 teams to screen passengers at passenger checkpoints, we’re developing specific plans to alleviate wait times at the nation’s busiest airports”, said Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security Secretary.
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“TSA will set up a working security lane with volunteer passengers to show the difference in the amount of time it takes a group of passengers who arrive at the checkpoint prepared for screening versus a second group of passengers who are not prepared”, the agency said.
Hate waiting in long airport security lines?
Transportation Security Administration officials and airline representatives agree that screening lines have gotten longer because the number of TSA agents has declined in recent years while the number of passengers has increased. “In this, we can not and we will not compromise the security of aviation or the American people”, Johnson said.
At JFK in NY, average wait times have doubled – to more than 20 minutes.
The TSA announcement comes amid growing calls for privatizing airport security at airports in Atlanta, New York and Seattle, as travelers light up Facebook and Twitter with griping about missed flights and epic traffic jams at TSA checkpoints.
“There will be wait times”, Johnson said.
Airport managements have long since thought of ways to ease the whole process.
“One of those options is to utilize a contractor to provide security as some other airports have done”, Ostreicher said in a statement.
Under the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program, 22 of the approximately 450 commercial USA airports, including San Francisco International Airport, use private screeners.
“It’s very stressful because I hope that everything that I packed is still in there after people have hand-checked it”.
“I hate to see people lose their jobs, but if it would make it go faster and be quicker I’d be all for it”, Nelson said.
Meanwhile, TSA staffing has been down as the struggling agency
On Thursday in Arizona, a TSA software glitch caused more than 3,000 checked bags to be left behind at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. In 2014, the TSA lost 4,644 employees while hiring 373 individuals.
With an attrition rate of 10 percent, TSA has about 5,000 fewer screening officers today than it did three years ago, NBC News reports.
Congress holds the purse strings, and it did give the agency some relief earlier this week.
About $26 million will pay for additional overtime and part-time hours, and about $8 million will go toward the hiring of 768 officers this month. If successful, they could be replicated at other US airports.
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PreCheck member Celeste Cooper took five minutes to clear security Friday morning at New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport.
