Are the Long Airport Waits Over?
The partial government shutdown is still dragging on. But the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staffing shortage seen in earlier weeks—and the resulting hours-long waits at airports around the country—appears to be improving.
The number of TSA agents who have called out of work has fallen more than 43% since President Donald Trump ordered that staffers be paid amid the ongoing shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told TIME.
“This is a direct reflection of what happens when our workforce is funded and supported,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Lauren Bis said in a statement. “We are grateful to President Trump for ensuring our dedicated TSA officers can continue their critical mission of safeguarding the traveling public.”
On March 27, Trump issued a presidential memorandum, instructing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to pay TSA agents using existing funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations.” Last week, TSA officers began receiving their retroactive paychecks.
The shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, began in mid-February after Democrats and Republicans became deadlocked over immigration enforcement. Before the President’s order to pay TSA officers, the lapse in funding threw air travel into chaos. Since TSA agents are considered to be essential workers, they are expected to continue showing up to work during a shutdown, even if they’re not receiving any wages. But the shutdown prompted many TSA staffers to call out of work at some airports so that they could take on additional jobs to pay their bills. That left some airports understaffed, resulting in hours-long lines to get through security.
On March 27—the day that the highest number of agents called out of work since the DHS shutdown began on Feb. 14—more than 12% of TSA officers called out of work. But on Sunday, the call-out rate for TSA officers nationwide was down to just under 8%, meaning that about 2,045 agents called out of work that day, according to DHS.
The call-out rate, though, varies airport by airport. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, for instance, saw the highest call-out rate on Sunday, at 24.6%, according to DHS. Philadelphia International Airport came in second, with 21.5% of TSA agents calling out of work on Sunday, while John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York came in third, with a little more than 20% of officers calling out of work that day.
Airports like Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Pittsburgh International Airport, meanwhile, saw about 12% and 14%, respectively, of TSA officers calling out of work on Sunday.
Security wait times seemed to be improving last week at multiple airports that had previously been reporting hours-long lines. On Monday, that trend of declining wait times appeared to be continuing. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport were both reporting security wait times of 10 minutes or less on late Monday afternoon.
Some airports, though, were reporting longer waits than that—John F. Kennedy International Airport, for instance, was reporting wait times of roughly 30 minutes at four of its terminals on late Monday afternoon. Still, that is a notable drop from the hour or longer wait times people traveling through that airport were reporting a couple weeks ago.
It is unclear how much longer the DHS shutdown will stretch on for. While Senate and House Republicans said last week that they had agreed on a tentative deal to fund most of DHS—except for immigration enforcement agencies—through September, the House took no action on the bill on Thursday. It now seems that a deal to reopen the department might not be approved at least until the House returns from its two-week recess next week.