If you plan to take a flight this summer, the Transportation Security Administration makes no bones about it: Even with added staffing and other efforts to speed security screening, lines and wait times could be long.
And this month, the TSA is temporarily closing one of its smaller checkpoints in the Atlanta airport’s domestic terminal, which will send more people to the main checkpoint.
For about three weeks starting Thursday, Hartsfield-Jackson International’s smaller South security checkpoint will be closed for construction. The TSA will rebuild two lanes at the South checkpoint to test a new system in partnership with Delta Air Lines that is aimed at moving more people through the lanes in less time.
The re-engineered lanes are one initiative the TSA is using to try to avoid a summer of logjams at Hartsfield-Jackson International, where both passenger counts and wait times have been climbing.
“Think about how holiday travel looks,” TSA administrator Peter Neffenger said in a meeting Tuesday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The kinds of volume that we’re seeing now in some senses rivals what we would normally have seen around holiday periods. And that could be extended throughout the summer.”
During the work at the South checkpoint, which is down a corridor near the Delta Air Lines check-in area, some staff will be moved to the more heavily used main checkpoint near the atrium. That could help lines move more quickly there.
TSA is still advising that travelers get to the airport two hours before their flight time.
Hartsfield-Jackson earlier this year threatened to privatize its security checkpoints as it pushed for more TSA staff and canine units. TSA now says it expects to have about 120 more workers this summer, a 10 percent increase from last year.
Still, with limited resources, growing passenger counts and “a challenging environment right now” with the terrorist threat, Neffenger said “we need to change the model of screening.”
He said European airports including London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol use more advanced technology to process passengers than U.S. airports, prompting him to consider similar systems here.
The two new South checkpoint lanes will use automated conveyor belts and RFID radio frequency identification technology to help move bags and people more quickly, a system used at the Amsterdam airport among others. The new lanes will also feature multiple spots for passengers to prepare their bags at the same time, reducing the logjam effect when one person is slow or unaware of restrictions.
How much will the new system help to shorten waits? The busy Memorial Day travel period should give an indication, according to Neffenger.
The TSA has also boosted its use of dogs that can detect explosive resident to partially pre-screen people in line.
Budget cuts have reduced TSA’s staffing by 5,600 frontline workers compared with 2011, said Neffenger, who has been in the job about 10 months. He said legislation passed in December will stem the cuts this year, and TSA is also adding 768 workers nationally this summer.
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