Painfully long lines at major airports in the US made headlines last year, including Midway Airport in Chicago and the Windy City's other major airport, O'Hare.
Criticism was heaped on the Transportation Security Administration, and although their methods appeared painstaking, they also were proven to be effective, as they seized 74 guns in one week alone.
Now, with the a new administration and new, more "intimate" pat-down procedure in place, it remains to be seen how this will affect the upcoming spring travel season. -- IFPO.
Columnist, WashingtonPost.com
If you’re already bracing for a long airport security line during the spring break travel season, then you must remember last year.
You do, don’t you? That’s when Transportation Security Administration screening wait times doubled under the weight of tighter security and swelling crowds. On just one day in mid-March, 6,800 American Airlines customers reportedly missed their flights, thanks to the lengthy TSA lines.
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The agency assigned to protect America’s transportation systems responded with a 10-point plan to speed up airport lines, and the lines abated by the end of the summer. During the winter holidays, the agency estimates that 99 percent of air travelers waited in security lines for less than half an hour and that 95 percent waited less than 15 minutes.
But with spring break 2017 in our sights, air travelers are wondering if history will repeat itself. And if there’s anything they can do to avoid getting stuck in line.
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They’re air travelers like Beverly Byrum, a nurse from Louisville, who got a little preview of a worst-case scenario when she returned from a trip to Mexico through Atlanta in January.
“The immigration lines were 500 travelers deep, then another long line for TSA,” she says. “The anger in the crowd was growing. Many people missed connections.”
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Although Byrum doesn’t entirely blame the TSA for the slowdown, she says it was a contributing factor. The TSA hasn’t announced any new efforts aimed directly at easing lines during the busy spring travel weeks. Then again, this is a different spring and there’s a new administration in Washington.
Change is definitely in the air. One of the solutions that could be quickly put into place if new lines crop up: private security screeners. “That has long been a GOP-backed solution for inefficiency in the security process,” says Anthony DeMaio, a lobbyist with O’Neill and Associates in Washington. He expects to see a renewed push for increased privatization of TSA screeners. Already, more than 20 airports participate in the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program, which allows private companies to conduct airport security screening.
