Isom said in a letter to employees that tens of thousands of the airline’s customers have missed flights and bags have been delayed because of long security lines.
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Delays in screening will add to the headache that United Kingdom travellers often face at major U.S. airports, where queues for immigration can often take more than an hour.
In April, the airline criticized the the long security lines and said they would be worse when the summer travel season began in earnest.
“During peak times we are seeing waits up to 25 minutes or so”, Sumrall said.
The airline trade group attributed the growth in air travel primarily to lower fares. On Tuesday, the TSA promised to bring in hundreds of additional employees to O’Hare and TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger apologized to passengers left stranded after missing flights.
Charlotte’s biggest hub airline, American, is no longer waiting on the TSA to fix this problem.
Blame for stories like his at airports across the country is falling at the feet of the TSA, where the number of agents working and staying hasn’t kept up with passenger demand. And to make lines more manageable, American is putting its money where its mouth is.
The agency also urges travelers to enroll in PreCheck, which costs $85 for five years, enabling travelers to pass through an expedited screening.
“This is unacceptable to all of us, and the federal government can, and should, do better”.
To drive home their point, the TSA set up two different security lines for a demonstration.
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The situation boiled over this weekend when passengers at Chicago’s O’Hare airport were left stranded after security lines exceeded three hours. Airports and airlines have great expertise in staffing models and could be valuable resources in this effort. From June 1 to August 31, the nation’s airports are expected to serve an average of 2.51 million passengers a day, a 95,000 passenger-a-day increase over last summer, according to Airlines for America.
