Long Airport Security Lines Nearly Disappeared Over July 4 Weekend
All the complaints about the horrendously long airport security lines in May apparently caught the Transportation Security Administration's ear, resulting in smooth airport traffic flow over the busy July 4 weekend.
"National average wait time in standard lanes less than 10 minutes," said TSA spokesman David Castelveter. "We were given additional resources that enabled us reduce the amount of time spent in the screening lines, while improving security effectiveness."
Not only did the TSA have a good weekend, but operations at both Delta (DAL) - Get Report and United (UAL) - Get Report were particularly smooth, as both carriers reported substantial improvements from the July 4 weekend in 2015.
United, in a press release, said it achieved "a company-best for percentage of mainline and regional flights arriving at or before their scheduled arrival time from July 1 through July 4," with 72.2% of flights arriving at or before A-zero, or arrivals within zero minutes of schedule.
United said its A-zero rate was 20.4% better than in 2015 and 48.7% better than in 2014. However, it was not as good as Delta's. Delta's A-zero rate over the holiday weekend was 73.6%. (American (AAL) - Get Report said its A-14 rate, or arrivals within 14 minutes of schedule, was 75.8%).
American led criticism of the TSA when the agency seemed to lose control of its airport operations in May, but on Tuesday American spokeswoman Leslie Scott declared: "It was a good weekend. We did not see any issues.
"We raised concerns back in May, and the TSA reallocated funding, they picked up staffing and they got more canines, and we've added some staff to do the non-security work, and all that has added up to no extensive lines for customers," Scott said.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the second busiest hub for American, had its busiest day ever on June 30, when 30,860 passengers departed. The record stood for one day before it was broken July 1, as 31,704 passengers went through security.
During the weekend, the average standard wait time in Charlotte was 7.4 minutes while the average PreCheck wait was 2.1 minutes, said TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshertz.
'"On June 30, the longest standard wait time was 26 minutes and longest PreCheck wait time was four minutes," Koshertz said. "On July 1, the longest standard wait time was 17 minutes and the longest PreCheck wait time was five minutes."
Nationally, from June 30 through July 4, TSA screened 10.7 million passengers, said Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in a prepared statement. June 30 and July 1 were the highest volume travel days since 2007, he said.
During the weekend, the average wait time nationwide in standard security lines was less than 10 minutes, while those in TSA PreCheck lines waited less than five minutes, he said.
Johnson said more than 100 TSA security officers and volunteers transferred from around the country to fill in at the seven busiest airports. "With the reprogramming of funds approved by Congress, we have been able to expedite the hiring of 768 new {security officers}, add more overtime pay for the exiting TSA workforce, and are converting 2,784 {security officers} from part-time to full-time at the nation's busiest airports," he said.
Travel columnist Joe Brancatelli said that to make the July 4 weekend go smoothly, TSA "pulled out all the stops -- working people overtime, redeploying anyone and everyone to keep lines short."
"TSA isn't fixed," Brancatelli said. "It admits it is throwing everything it's got at line and that isn't sustainable. So the question will be, 'How are we going to do for Thanksgiving, when you have tons of people all trying to get somewhere on one particular day?'"
In his statement, Johnson noted: "We are not declaring victory. We plan to do more. The summer travel season continues, followed by holiday travel in the fall and winter."
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.