Thousands of Americans are missing flights each week because of growing airport security queues created by the government Transportation Security Administration, the bureaucracy created after the terrorist attacks on America in 2001.
The TSA gambled it could reduce the number of security staff it needs to process passengers at airport by inducting people paying up to $US100 a head to join a program called Pre-Check allowing them to bypass security queues.
It budgeted for an intake of 25 million travellers, but fewer than 10 million have signed up and it’s estimated it will take another four years to make up the shortfall.
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Nevertheless, in the past three years, the TSA has reduced airport passenger screening staff numbers from 47,147 to 42,525 because it thought it wouldn’t need them. At the same time, the number of passengers through US airports has risen from 643 million a year to more than 700 million.
There are reports that the system is in such chaos that the Pre-Check queue which was meant to be a bypass is now taking an hour to process passengers at some airports.
The world’s busiest airport, Atlanta, is even threatening to hire its own private security contractors to bypass the TSA. "ATL struggled with TSA staffing shortfalls in 2015 and the airport is dreading the outcome of summer 2016," airport manager Miguel Southwell says in a letter published by local media.
"TSA is our No. 1 problem right now, and it's only going to get worse," says Leslie Scott, a spokeswoman for American Airlines. At Chicago’s O’Hare airport alone in March, an estimated 1000 American Airlines passengers missed their flights due to "excessive" TSA lines that took up to 90 minutes to clear. Denver International Airport has reported delays of up to three hours.
The airline industry is so concerned that Airlines For America – the lobby group currently chaired by American Airlines chief executive Doug Parker – has launched a website, ihatethewait.com, through which it is encouraging passengers to post pictures and messages on social media about their frustration with security lines.
There appears no way that international passengers can be shielded from delays caused by TSA staff shortages as the agency is the sole security processor for domestic and international flights.
Nearly 900,000 Australians are among around 77 million foreign visitors heading to the USA this year to face an airport security problem that is virtually non-existent at home. In a recent survey of air travellers by the Australian Consumers Association, airport security did not figure at all in a list of the most frequent complaints.
Note: foreign travellers to America can participate in the Pre-Check program via the existing Global Entry entry scheme aimed at frequent travellers that enables priority clearance through US international airports. Details: https://www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck/faq.
