At world’s busiest airport, travelers whipsawed by crowd chaos, uncertainty
At the world’s busiest airport, a partial government shutdown has travelers weaving through confusion, uncertainty and hourslong lines that wind around baggage claim and, at times, on to sidewalks outside the terminal.
While hope surged Tuesday that a Congressional deal to end the shutdown was in the works, unpredictability at the airport continued. Security lines overflowed from the terminal in the early morning, then shrank to minimal waits later in the morning.
On normal days, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport usually processes tens of thousands of passengers through five checkpoints, keeping a constant stream of people moving through dozens of Transportation Security Administration screening lanes.
But amid a lapse in funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes the TSA, the more than 1,000 security officers that staff those checkpoints have gone for more than five weeks without pay.
More than 450 TSA officers have quit and thousands have called out sick because they can’t afford gas, childcare, food or rent, according to DHS.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday afternoon he will not stand in the way if the U.S. Senate moves forward on a plan to fund most of DHS, including TSA workers at airports.
“We are going to take a good hard look at it,” he told reporters during an event at the Oval Office.
Chaos at Atlanta airport
A partial government shutdown has left TSA workers unpaid for weeks, causing many to seek other work or childcare. Meanwhile security lines have ballooned with officials estimating wait times could reach four hours.
Live updates: What we’re seeing from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Paychecks arriving: Atlanta TSA employees begin receiving backpay. Future pay remains uncertain.
Worst waits: Why have airport lines seemed worse at ATL? The reasons are many.
Airport reports: The latest Atlanta airport wait times, as reported by passengers
How bad is it: Tell us about your ATL wait time
Donations: How to help TSA officers
Staying away: ICE presence makes airport a no-fly zone for immigrant community
Changing flights: Delta extends flight change flexibility because of security waits
ICE Deployment: ICE at Atlanta airport appear to step into some TSA functions
Security debate: Should the Atlanta airport privatize security? TSA woes raise the question.
Horror story: This traveler waited 9 hours in line
AJC Editorial: Congress must act now
Opinion: The airport perks for Congress may be drying up, not a minute too soon
Photos: Scenes from a packed airport
Pay divide: TSA workers are unpaid during shutdown; not so for members of Congress
Shutdown strain: TSA workers weigh showing up or staying afloat
Flight missed: Here’s the best food in every concourse
Complete coverage: Atlanta airport
Democrats refused to fully fund DHS until the Trump administration agreed to changes to immigration enforcement practices after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by ICE officers in Minnesota. Senate Republicans have floated a plan to fund DHS, with the exception of immigration enforcement.
While negotiations continue, the system at the airport is breaking down during the busiest periods. A clear sign: The airport stopped posting airport security wait time estimates.
The airport’s estimates are normally based on passenger counts in queueing areas — but the system isn’t designed to estimate wait times when the lines snake through baggage claim and stretch out the door.
Atlanta isn’t alone, with airports in New York also taking down their wait time estimates.
Security line patterns are also going haywire as TSA officers call out of work to find other ways to make money and pay their bills, forcing the airport to close checkpoints at unexpected times because of understaffing.
That has left travelers unsure how early they need to get to the airport to make their flights. Wait times could be five hours, like some estimates by airport workers early Monday morning, or they could be five minutes.
At about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, employees estimated standard wait times were about 2½ hours.
On days that previously were the lightest for travel, like Tuesdays, some travelers during busy periods of the day are encountering lines stretching through the terminal and onto the curb outside.
A line stretching past most Terminal South entrances welcomed TSA PreCheck passengers aiming to get through security. What welcomed them inside was more cold comfort — a security line weaving through the baggage claim area.
Another sign of the dysfunction: the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports with the most severe TSA staffing shortages, including Hartsfield-Jackson.
ICE agents have become a common sight this week as they roam around the atrium and baggage claim areas at the Atlanta airport. But it’s not clear that ICE officers are actually helping with passenger throughput.
They were back Tuesday for the second day in Atlanta’s airport, after President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that ICE would fill gaps left by the partial government shutdown. Some TSA officers have either quit or are simply not showing up to work after they stopped getting paid in mid-February.
Late Monday, reports surfaced that the U.S. Senate was working on a deal to end the partial government shutdown. But with a deal not yet materialized, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines suspended a major travel perk for members of Congress.
“Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta,” a Delta statement read. “Next to safety, Delta’s No. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment.”
The service suspension follows angry comments from Delta CEO Ed Bastian last week, when he said the TSA agents who screen passengers at airports are being used as “political chips” in congressional negotiations over DHS funding.
Regular travelers as well as TSA officers have had to upend their lives to cope with the fallout.
Andy Carr contemplated driving to Atlanta from Chicago over the weekend but opted to chance flying instead.
As he stood outside Hartsfield-Jackson, he didn’t regret his decision, although he’s glad he rescheduled a 8 a.m. flight to leave later in the morning.
He likely still faced a multihour wait before clearing security.
“I said, ‘You know what, I’m not doing this.’ I got done with my meetings at midnight, and I’m not pulling an all-nighter (to make my earlier flight),” he said.
He estimated he travels 40 times a year for work, so he’s run into every flight setback imaginable. “It’s just part of travel,” he said. “This time, I just listened to what everyone was warning us about and arrived early.”
In a possible worst-case scenario, some travelers waited in line for a whopping nine hours Sunday evening into the wee hours of Monday morning.
The Atlanta airport saw a 37.4% callout rate among TSA officers Monday, the highest among major U.S. airports for that day, according to DHS.
Yet other travelers are breezing through checkpoints with no wait at all during lulls in traffic.
Those who are arriving at the terminal four hours early, as recommended by the airport, are rewarded with several hours of quality time on the concourses.
A week ago, Katie Davenport waited an hour to fly out of Atlanta for work. Tuesday, she expected the lines to be much worse but was pleasantly surprised to start her wait indoors and not in a line that pushed outside.
“I thought it would be much longer, so I’m excited,” she said when getting into the TSA PreCheck line just before 8 a.m.
Compared with only a few hours earlier, Hartsfield-Jackson felt like a different airport by 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Lines at both TSA PreCheck and the main security checkpoint were minimal, leaving travelers pleasantly surprised that they could see the baggage scanners before getting in line.
“My thought was, I would get here, see what this looked like and turn around and go back home if it was too bad,” Laura Tuscano said. She added that her business trip to Denver could shift to virtual calls from home if her travel plans were disrupted.
But that won’t be the case as she waltzed into the TSA PreCheck line, with wait times measured in minutes rather than hours.
An employee at the airport’s customer service desk appreciated the midmorning respite after working most of the past few days on the airport floor trying to help travelers. During the lull, she’s able to catch up on emails, although she expects the airport to grow more hectic as the weekend approaches.
— AJC staff writers Tia Mitchell and Emma Hurt contributed to this article.
About the Authors
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
