US fliers brace for long security lines at airports

Associated Press

NEW YORK

An expedited screening program called PreCheck was supposed to be the answer to maddeningly long security lines at the airport. But four years after its launch, the Transportation Security Administration is far short of enrolling enough travelers to make a difference, spelling trouble for summer travel season.

Fliers can expect massive security lines across the country, with airlines already warning passengers to arrive at least two hours early or risk missing their flight.

The TSA cut its airport screener staff by 10 percent in the past three years, anticipating PreCheck would speed up the process. When not enough fliers enrolled, the agency tried to make up for that shortfall by randomly placing passengers into the express lanes. But it recently scaled back that effort for fear that dangerous passengers were being let through. That’s when the lines started growing, up to 90 minutes in some cases.

The TSA is shifting some resources to tackle lines at the nation’s biggest airports, but says there is no easy solution to the problem with a record number of fliers expected this summer.

“We had unacceptable line waits at the majority of our hubs,” says Robert Isom, chief operating officer of American Airlines. “Based on what the TSA is telling us, there is no relief in sight.”

Launched nationwide in 2012, PreCheck gives previously vetted passengers special screening. Shoes, belts and light jackets stay on. Laptops and liquids stay in bags. And these fliers go through standard metal detectors rather than the explosive-detecting full-body scanners most pass through.

The TSA offered Congress a lofty goal of having 25 million fliers enrolled in the program. Based on that and other increased efficiencies, the TSA’s front-line screeners were cut from 47,147 three years ago to 42,525 currently. At the same time, the number of annual fliers passing through checkpoints has grown from 643 million to more than 700 million.