Airports Dealing With Long Lines & "Woefully Understaffed" TSA
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – There are growing concerns about security lines at airports as the summer travel season gets closer.
Checkpoint lines are getting twice as long at some airports around the country.
The TSA is under enormous pressure from Congress and the flying public to cut down on wait times at airports.
The criticism comes as fewer TSA screeners are on the job, and now some airports are turning to private contractors.
Wait times of up to 90 minutes caused spring break chaos at airports around the country.
American Airlines said in just one week, last month, nearly 68,000 passengers missed their flights because of long security lines.
At Seattle-Tacoma International, the waits stretched to over an hour.
Now the airport will hire private contractors to help with administrative duties as the airport explores dropping the agency all together.
"We're going to investigate what it would take to privatize, we're looking at other airports that have privatized," said SEA-TAC Managing Director Lance Lyttle
Twenty- two U.S. airports, including San Francisco and Kansas City, use private firms for security screening.
Nationally, the number of TSA screeners is down 15 percent since 2011.
"We have very high passenger volumes right now," said TSA Administrator Peter Nefenger. "I do have concerns about long wait times because it does gather people up and in addition to being an inconvenience for the traveler, which is no small problem, it does pose a potential challenge with respect to large crowds of people."
Earlier this year, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport - fed up with a TSA that is "woefully understaffed" - said they are considering "privatizing the security screening process."
"We're working very hard to dramatically improve our ability to move people through, shifting resources to the highest-volume airports, front-loading our hiring to those airports, training more people than we've ever trained before," Neffenger said.
With passenger volume increasing and more focus on enhanced screening at checkpoints, TSA's job is not getting easier.
CBS4 checked with both Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Neither airport uses private contractors to help with security screenings.
