On a record day when nearly 102,000 passengers were screened at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, some waited in line for two hours Monday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Airport officials had advised that passengers flying out the day after the Super Bowl get in line at TSA security 2 hours before departure, as part of a 5-4-3-2-1 rule. But when the lines were longest, that may not have been enough to get to the gate in time to board a flight.
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In addition to clearing security, passengers would also need time to get to their concourse and gate, which could involve a ride on the Plane Train.
Boarding typically starts half an hour or more before departure. The airport had advised getting into the TSA line two hours before departure and getting to the gate an hour before departure -- meaning security on Monday should have taken less than an hour to get through instead of two hours.
Fortunately, many passengers allowed more time than the airport advised and got into line for security more than two hours before their flights.
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The total of 101,999 passengers flooding TSA checkpoints on Mass Exodus Monday surpassed the previous record of 93,082 set on the Friday before Memorial Day 2018, according to TSA.
“It was obviously very, very busy,” said Mary Leftridge Byrd, TSA federal security director at Hartsfield-Jackson.
While on Monday airport officials said wait times were as much as an hour and a half long, TSA said Tuesday that the maximum wait time on Monday was 120 minutes.
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The new record for passengers screened in a day is nearly 9.6 percent higher than the old record, and it showed: Lines on Monday morning stretched through the domestic terminal atrium, around baggage claim carousels and flooded into airline check-in areas. The terminal was flooded with passengers at around 8 a.m. and lines extended around the terminal through the morning.
Hartsfield-Jackson assistant general manager of planning Tom Nissalke said the airport had "established a plan to essentially use every available square foot and fill it with queuing."
But if passengers were not in line during the peak period Monday morning, they might have had shorter wait times. TSA said the majority of passengers waited 30 minutes or less.
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