Latest: Airport security delays at peak times continue with no end in sight
Paul Mercer’s anxiety heightens anytime he steps into an airport. He and his wife, Nicole, aren’t frequent flyers, and they usually prefer to travel by car.
But when they decided late last year to visit family in Denver this month, they booked flights. They didn’t anticipate four months later a partial government shutdown would stymie their travel day.
“It’s unfortunate,” Paul Mercer said Friday morning as the couple waited in a security checkpoint line that wound through the Atlanta airport’s domestic terminal. “The congresspeople that we vote for just need to get it together.”
Travelers headed to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport should prepare for exceedingly long waits to clear security this weekend and for the foreseeable future as the Transportation Security Administration grapples with the lingering effects of the partial government shutdown.
The world’s busiest airport posted wait times of two hours at the main domestic checkpoint before 6 a.m. Friday. Waits were more than an hour at 9 a.m.
As spring break travel ramps up, Hartsfield-Jackson expects hundreds of thousands of people to pass through Atlanta airport security checkpoints through Sunday.
Airport officials are warning travelers they should arrive at least three hours before their departure times.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is advising international travelers to get to the airport four hours ahead of their departures.
The shutdown affects the Department of Homeland Security, of which TSA is a part. TSA workers have not been paid for weeks amid the shutdown, leading to high rates of workers calling out, often to try to pick up other paying work to make ends meet.
Paul and Nicole Mercer woke up at least five hours before they were scheduled to board. The couple live in Augusta.
Usually flights to Denver are more expensive out of Augusta Regional Airport, which is why they decided to fly out of Hartsfield-Jackson. Next time there is a government shutdown, Paul Mercer said, he’ll just pay the extra money to avoid security in Atlanta.
He urged Congress to come to an agreement and get TSA officers their paychecks.
“You’ve got to pay the DHS workers,” he said.
Shianne Smith and Alyssa Penny from Cumming arrived at the Atlanta airport about 30 minutes ahead of boarding their flight to Key West, where they’re headed for a wedding.
The duo didn’t realize they faced such daunting wait times until they approached the main security checkpoint. They feared they would miss their flight.
Smith, a server, said she knew about the shutdown, and she didn’t know why she thought she was going to be “invincible today.” She said she has been so busy with work recently she hasn’t followed the situation closely.
“These past two days were the first two in a while I’ve been able to pay attention to anything,” Smith said. “Now I’m living it.”
Phyllis Willis of Marietta was traveling Friday to Little Rock for a family funeral. She arrived at security three hours before she was scheduled to board, giving her more than enough time to make it through the terminal. But the funeral is Saturday, so if she misses her flight, she still has time to make contingency plans.
She is flying again next week — this time, to Milwaukee. Willis said she is not looking forward to waiting an hour in security again if the shutdown continues. She hopes it is resolved quickly.
“I feel bad for these TSA agents who are working and not getting paid,” Willis said. “Most people are paycheck to paycheck, so it’s hard for them to do that.”
— Editor’s note: Original story continues below.
Security lines again filled Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Thursday morning, with some wait times as long as 90 minutes in the early morning hours.
The congestion lessened later in the morning, according to the airport’s estimated wait times, but some lines were still more than 40 minutes long at times.
And after a week with long security lines — and some wait times reaching about two hours, a busy travel weekend could bring even more frustrations.
As spring break travel ramps up, Hartsfield-Jackson expects nearly 350,000 people to pass through Atlanta airport security checkpoints from Thursday through Sunday.
That’s after the airport’s website showed some security wait times again reached nearly two hours on Wednesday, typically one of the slower days of the week.
Airport officials are warning travelers they should arrive at least three hours before their departure times.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is advising international travelers to get to the airport four hours ahead of their departures.
Causing the long waits is a partial government shutdown that has left Transportation Security Administration officers working for weeks without pay. Some have been forced to find other work to pay their bills.
Atlanta, being the world’s busiest airport, is perhaps the most visible symbol of the nation’s air travel disruption.
At Hartsfield-Jackson, about 36% of TSA officers have called out of work, according to airport officials.
Hartsfield-Jackson General Manager Ricky Smith said the high call-out rate of TSA employees ‘is an experience that airports across the country are seeing.”
The partial government shutdown affects the Department of Homeland Security, of which TSA is a part.
Houston Hobby Airport had a 55% call-out rate last Saturday, and more than 50% call-out rates Sunday and Monday, according to DHS. New Orleans also had more than 30% call-out rates, DHS said.
The agency said at some airports nationally, people are facing three-hour security lines and also missing flights.
“Despite these challenges, TSA officers continue to show up every day, working without pay to ensure the safety of millions of passengers who are traveling through our airport,” Smith said in a video message posted on social media.
“We appreciate your patience, your tolerance,” Smith said. “We truly appreciate that as we work our way through this continued shutdown.”
Funding for DHS is at the center of an impasse between Congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump and Republicans over immigration enforcement. In exchange for approval of DHS funding, Democrats want significant changes to immigration enforcement in the wake of the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian called it “inexcusable” that TSA officers are not being paid, and connected concerns about the Iran war with airport security concerns.
“We have a war going on. Let’s get our people who are essential to our security paid quickly,” he said during remarks at an investor conference Tuesday.
A TSA official on Tuesday said in an appearance on Fox News that “if this continues it’s not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports, particularly smaller ones, if call-out rates go up.”
He did not give details on when that could occur or what airports would be affected.
Across the country, more than 360 TSA officers have quit because of the shutdown, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The union that represents TSA officers said many of them are “struggling to afford to make it to work while not being paid.”
Hartsfield-Jackson is giving meal vouchers, free parking and free MARTA passes to TSA officers, while airport concessionaires are offering discounted meals.
Airline CEOs sent an open letter to Congress on Sunday calling on it to resolve the shutdown.
They said in the letter that checkpoint wait times of “2, 3 and even 4 hours have been reported,” and airlines are trying to mitigate disruption by holding flights for late passengers and handling rebookings.
About the Authors
Savannah Sicurella is an entertainment business reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
