TSA is to blame for long waits at airports

This is bad. Lines at airport security checkpoints have gotten so long that … well, let the people who have been in them tell about it. See Twitter #iHateTheWait:

“Holy Crap this line goes all the way down the hall and out the doors!” writes Michael Bednarczyk from Chicago’s Midway International Airport.

“I’m walking everywhere from now on,” tweets Jason Pearl from Chicago O’Hare.

“Actual chaos wall to wall in #OHareAirport,” says Ariel Sara. “About to miss my @AmericanAir flight.”

Her next tweet, after more than two hours in the security line, was of the cot in the airport terminal where she planned to spend the night.

It’s not just in Chicago.

American Airlines has said it will spend $4 million to hire a company to help passengers move through security checkpoints at DFW and other airports this summer.

“Tens of thousands of customers have missed their flights and tens of thousands of checked bags have been delayed,” American’s chief operating officer Robert Isom wrote in a letter to employees on Wednesday.

Star-Telegram writer Andrea Ahles reports that travelers have encountered waits of up to an hour at security checkpoints in DFW’s Terminal D. That doesn’t sound too bad, compared to the horror stories on Twitter.

DFW Airport Chief Executive Sean Donohue said the airport is considering taking over some nonsecurity related operations at the checkpoints to free up Transportation Security Administration officers for screening passengers.

TSA is responsible for it all.

Its officials primarily blame a sharp increase in airline traffic and a sharp decrease in screening personnel, and congressional funding levels bear some of the blame for that.

Still, it’s TSA’s job to accurately predict how many screeners will be needed, to have them at the checkpoints when and where they are needed, and to get us all safely and expeditiously on our way.

Safety is the real bottom line. TSA is hiring 768 more screeners and hopes to have them on the job this summer, but no one wants them to be so rushed that they don’t do their jobs well.

Even with airlines and airports doing what they can, travelers will have to help themselves.

Beyond “arrive early, be patient,” frequent fliers say wear shoes that are easy to take off, put your stuff in the check bins quickly and, once you’re through the checkpoint, move away quickly so as not to block others.

For $85, passengers can join the TSA PreCheck program and get access to express security lanes for five years.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 6:23 PM with the headline "TSA is to blame for long waits at airports."