Security lines at airport lengthen
Congress, to save money, has capped the number of security officers that the TSA can hire to man check points at airports; the number of fliers is growing; the result: Longer lines, waiting periods
As they say in aviation circles: If you’ve seen one airport, you’ve seen one airport. The Christian Science Monitor’s Alexandra Marks reports that the same can be said of their lines for security screening: They are as different as the terminal, time of day, and airport that you fly from. One thing remains almost the same: The peak wait times in these security lines are just as long as they were last year. In fact, they are a little bit longer.
Despite repeated pledges from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to speed things up, the national average peak waiting time last month was 13.77 minutes — one minute and twenty seconds longer than last year’s national average. The national average can be misleading, experts say. For instance, in Atlanta’s main terminal on a Monday morning last year, the average peak waiting time was 35 to 50 minutes, according to the TSA. In Los Angeles, it was between 5 and 24 minutes. Whenever there is a terrorist incident abroad, such as the recent attempted bombings in London, an increase in security can slow things down here as well.
Getting through airport security lanes thus remains an unpredictable and sometimes frustrating experience for many travelers. “We’re no better or worse off than we were last year,” says Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, an aviation-consulting firm in Evergreen, Colo. “I guess that’s good news.” Part of the problem is the season. In summer, more of the Pampers-packing and vacation set who are unfamiliar with the new security regulations take to the skies. On a given day, 60 percent of travelers are considered “leisure,” which means they don’t fly regularly. If those travelers prepare more before they get to the checkpoint, experts say, it could speed things along for everyone.
Another reason for longer security lines is Congress. To save money, it has capped the number of security officers that the TSA can hire, while the number of fliers is growing, albeit far more slowly than last year. Critics say this has undermined the TSA’s ability to hire more people and train those they have better. “The waits aren’t the issue. It’s the quality of the security,” says Boyd. “We still have breaches like the one that shut down a terminal in Oakland last week and the tests
