Dramatically lower the price of PreCheck. This weekend alone, 1.2 million will travel 50 miles or more from home during the holiday period Thursday through Monday. Wait times they, and members of Congress, would rather not see. There were no lines this afternoon.
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But even if larger airports moved to switch to private screeners, they could not do so in time to handle the increased summer travel.
Shifting more workers to full-time would not only help with turnover, it would also provide immediate relief for massive airport lines.
The agency is also launching an incident command center that will track daily operations and aim to shorten lines.
Waits at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport – one of the most delay-plagued in the nation – have shrunk to around 15 minutes, according to an American Airlines spokeswoman.
Due to all those reasons and more, the House Committee made a decision to hold a hearing about the issues surrounding the TSA.
Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and chairman of the committee, said in a statement, “This is not a new rodeo”. But they’ll barely make a dent. The point is that it is not enough for TSA to say, “Come to the airport extra early”.
It would a avoid single-file security line because five people can drop off bags at the same time. “If you get ID reading technology into there, there’s things we can do that can automate the identity check process as well”, he added. The TSA is encouraging passengers to pay the $85 fee and enroll in the PreCheck program, which expedites the screening process.
“Truthfully, there’s not a whole lot you can do – except get there early – to be sure you get to your plane on time”, Terry Bigler, owner of Zeller Travel at 27 W. Lemon St., said Tuesday.
This likely won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has ever waited in airport security lines, but increasing the TSA’s manpower seems to be the key to alleviating the gridlock.
McCaul pressed Neffenger about the abrupt ouster of Kelly Hoggan, the agency’s top security official. Hoggan was replaced by Darby Lajoye, the one-time deputy assistant administrator. Neffenger declined to explain why he removed Hoggan, saying only that “I needed a new direction going forward”.
Last week, Chicago’s two major airports were recommending travelers arrive three hours ahead of their domestic flight times to get through the security checkpoints.
Neffenger said the bonuses were given before he became TSA chief last July, and that he stopped the practice upon his arrival.
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Officials in New York, Atlanta and other cities are also taking a hard look at whether privatizing airport security might move travelers through security checkpoints more quickly. The airline industry has criticized the TSA for a lack of up-to-date information – a TSA spokesman says the agency will post current wait times by mid June. Delta plans to redesign screening lanes in at least one airport. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has promised that help is on the way. “Every additional bag coming through the checkpoint is a potential slowdown”, he said. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., said the stakes for getting it right are high.
