The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will immediately increase the use of overtime and work to quickly bring in more screening officers to help alleviate long lines at airport security checkpoints, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Friday.
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APPHOTO DCSG124: Passengers wait in a security line at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport, Friday, May 13, 2016.
Staffing authorized by Congress for the TSA, which operates security at airports across the country, has fallen from 47,147 full-time employees in 2013 to 42,525 this year, a decrease of nearly 10 percent, according to agency data.
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez says it’s “not clear at this time what the problem was” with the screening system and that testing is continuing Friday.
U.S. Senators Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., this week called on U.S. airlines to stop charging checked baggage fees this summer to reduce carry-on bags and speed security lines. The ordeal demonstrated TSA’s need for a sufficient backup system and more manpower, he said. We’re going to bring on more resources to meet the increased demand but we’re going to keep at our principle job, which is the protection of the American people.
Cagle said the airport is asking questions about employing private security at check in to respond to passenger complaints about long waits. Participating travelers don’t have to remove shoes or light jackets or take their laptops and liquids out of their bags when they go through security checkpoints.
Bags jammed a parking lot at the Phoenix airport as they waited to be shipped by ground to other cities for safety checks, among thousands that missed their flights because of problems with the federal system that screens luggage for explosives.
Therefore, passengers should arrive at least two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before any worldwide travel.
“It’s very stressful because I hope that everything that I packed is still in there after people have hand-checked it. And just that it gets there on time”, Mindy McLarren told CNN affiliate KPHO.
“I hate it”, she said.
Last week the three NY area airports joined Seattle and Atlanta in threatening to kick out the TSA and replace the agents with private screeners.
“We know the wait times are long”, said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.
It’s a battle of security versus convenience, with passengers’ patience running short as lines grow longer.
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“More people are in fact traveling, but we’re not going to compromise aviation security under pressure from anybody characterizing this as a crisis”.
