The trade group commended the TSA recently for announcing new efforts to reduce long screening lines that airlines worry might scare Americans away from traveling this summer.
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Even with existing staffing, Dillon says he needs more people working at the security checkpoint to keep people moving through smoothly.
Those are among the key findings of two airline passenger surveys released last week.
“The outrageously long wait times we have witnessed in Newark not only slow down travel, but they also slow down economic growth for New Jersey and the region”, Booker said.
“Security and the safety of the flying public is our number one objective, but people are sick and exhausted of waiting, and we can do better”, he said.
Already faced with lines that snake through terminals out to the curb, fliers are bracing for long waits at security in the busy summer months.
Appleton International Airport is holding an event all week to get people enrolled.
His agency is on the defensive after three former TSA employees testified that they were retaliated against after “directed reassignments”, where employees who have highlighted wrongdoing within the administration are shifted to other assignments. It’s a threat that was repeated this month by major airports in New York, Charlotte, and Phoenix. In addition, 100 current part-time TSA officers at O’Hare and Midway will soon be moved to full-time duty to help during peak travel hours.
Menendez also called on the airlines to consider suspending their bag fees for the summer “to expedite security lines, more checked bags would mean less bags for TSA to screen at the checkpoint”.
PreCheck enrollment continues at Appleton International Airport throughout the week. But even as USA passengers grow frustrated with longer and longer lines at checkpoints nationwide, the EgyptAir incident “is a stark reminder that what we do is really important”, he added.
Dillon says he has staff dedicated to tracking wait times all hours of the day.
Those workers “are generally reminding them [travelers] to put their items in the bins so that they are not likely to trigger an alarm when they go through the body scanning equipment”, she said.
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A steep drop in fuel costs over the last year and a half helped domestic fares decline almost 4% in 2015 compared with the previous year, according to federal statistics. Enrollees typically don’t have to remove their shoes, belts or light jackets or remove liquids and laptops from their luggage, which is often the case when passing through the regular screening process.
