Travelers stuck in long lines amid TSA staffing shortages, partial gov shutdown

With the Spring Break travel rush underway, travelers at airports across the country are facing longer wait times at security checkpoints due to a Transportation Security Administration staffing shortage linked to the partial government shutdown.

“Today, travelers are facing TSA lines nearly 3 hours long at some major airports, causing missed flights and massive delays during peak travel,” Lauren Bis, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement to ABC News.

Airports reporting extended wait times include Houston’s Hobby Airport and George Bush International Airport, New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana, Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina.

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Travelers are being advised to arrive at airports three to four hours prior to their flight to allow for extra screening time.

The disruptions come as airlines are expecting to fly 171 million passengers between March 1 and April 30 — about 4% more than last year and an average of nearly 3 million passengers each day, according to Airlines for America.

Officials at Houston’s Hobby Airport said they had to close the TSA PreCheck lane due to the staffing shortage, as the airport’s security checkpoint operated on a “limited capacity” on Sunday, with not all lanes open.

At the beginning of the shutdown, TSA said PreCheck remains operational during the shutdown, but the agency will “evaluate on a case-by-case basis and adjust operations accordingly.”

The Global Entry Program remains suspended due to the shutdown.

“We are in spring break travel season and expecting record numbers of people to take to the skies. Airlines have done their part to prepare; now Congress and the administration must act with urgency to reach a deal that reopens DHS and ends this shutdown. America’s transportation security workforce is too important to be used as political leverage,” the president and CEO of Airlines Trade Group, Chris Sununu, said in response to the travel disruptions on Sunday.

TSA workers received a partial paycheck two weeks ago since the shutdown began and will be receiving their first $0 paycheck next week if the shutdown continues.

Airports and other aviation partners say they are providing food and gas gift cards to TSA workers, but add that these “gestures only go so far” without a paycheck.

Officials from the travel industry have also warned that these lines could get worse at airports across the country if the shutdown continues.

“You’re going to see that as every day goes by, the longer this goes on,” Todd Hauptli, president and CEO of the American Association of Airport Executives, said at a press conference Thursday.

“We’re going to see sickouts, we’re going to see screeners who love their jobs that are going to be forced to look for other jobs. TSA is going to do their very best to try and keep those lines moving, but they’re not going to sacrifice safety and that means people should be prepared as this drags out for longer. Take more time, you have to pack your patience,” Hauptli added.

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Sununu says it’s hard to predict which airports will be impacted, adding that disruptions might impact smaller airports more but could have a “domino effect” on the bigger airports across the country as well.

“You never know where there’s going to be pressure on one airport or another. Will it be Chicago? Will it be Burbank? Will it be national? Will it be overseas? And so it’s, it’s hard to plan for that, because it’s really a day-by-day thing, and so the airlines are 24/7 constantly scrambling, looking at all the numbers and all the data, making sure that they can adapt and work around these issues as best they can,” Sununu added.

Last year’s government shutdown resulted in more than 9,000 flights being delayed or canceled, significantly impacting six million travelers and causing $6.1 billion in losses across the travel industry and related sectors, according to the U.S. Travel Association.