Wait times at airport screening checkpoints have been growing recently for several reasons, including a shortage of Transportation Security Administration officers and the growth in passenger traffic over the last few years. Chuck Schumer said Thursday.
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Next time you make your way through that TSA checkpoint, give that plastic bin a second glance for runaway quarters.
Jeff Dashley missed his flight on Friday because of long lines at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. 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. It was 4:00 a.m. when he arrived at the terminal, but he says TSA couldn’t handle the early-morning crowd.
At Los Angeles International Airport, passengers left behind $55,086 – the most of any US airport.
And while he’s not blaming the flying public, Howell says there is some shared responsibility there when it comes to things like talking off your belt and not bringing liquids through the security line. “We have several ways in which we’ve been working with the airlines and the TSA to try to mitigate wait times”.
“These new agents are desperately needed to speed up brutally long security lines now plaguing our airports”, he said in a news release. “We must do everything we can to keep air travel safe, reliable and efficient”.
The amount of authorized overtime has been tripled. Maximum wait times at JFK were about 55 minutes – with similar situations at LaGuardia and Newark airports.
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A4A said the root problem with the excessive security lines is a failure to align TSA staff and equipment with the latest passenger volumes by location, and in fact, more of TSA’s budget is going toward non-aviation related functions.
