Staff Shortages, Mandates, And Unruly Passengers Are Some Of The Concerns Facing Airports As Travel Is Expected To Increase For Thanksgiving Holiday
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Expectations of a huge increase in Thanksgiving travel this year -- leaves some fear there will be chaos at airports.
Air travel is expected to be up 80 percent from last year. This comes as the airline industry has been dealing with widespread staff shortages. and all federal employees must be fully vaccinated by next Monday. As of last month, 40 percent of TSA employees were still not vaccinated -- or had not submitted their vaccination status.
In an interview on CBS this morning... the TSA administrator who oversees security at nearly 440 airports says he is confident all will go smoothly, and mandates will be taken seriously.
"We will go through a progressive discipline policy with our unvaccinated employees, religious exemptions, process of looking through each of the cases and make a determination in the next several weeks. There is a potential if you do not have an approved exemption and not vaccinated that you will lose your job,"
Also, with unruly passengers at an all-time high, there is a continued effort to provide self-defense training and de-escalation training to airline staff.
