SFO seeing longer delays as travelers approach pre-pandemic levels

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT -- SFO has issued a travel bulletin to all passengers: traffic is picking, and maybe more than the airport can handle. 

The airport is asking everyone to arrive two hours early for domestic flights, three for international. Lines are getting longer, and part of the problem is staffing.

"You picked an awesome day to find it packed," one traveler said. "There was no parking in the lot."

Just about lunchtime on a Tuesday - hardly the busiest time of the week at SFO - even the pre-checked passengers were doing some waiting.

"I guess it's the high season with summer, I don't know," one woman said after dropping her son off for a flight. She was worried the lines might cause him to miss it.

"It's very crowded," said one woman in the security line. "And our boarding time is in 15 minutes."

Tuesday, the airport alerted passengers to the growing lines, as traffic has now reached about 75% of pre-pandemic levels. But why is that 75% straining checkpoints?

"So, we continue to see our security vendor adding more staffing and adding more headcount," explained SFO spokesman Doug Yakel. "I know they've got new hires who continue to join the ranks."

KPIX reached out to that vendor, Covenant Aviation Security, and has not heard back. But on their website, they are offering $3,000 signing bonuses for screeners at SFO. More staff could certainly help, especially when the flight schedule gets busy.

"There are definite peaks and valleys in our flight schedule," Yakel said. "There are periods of the day where it's relatively quiet, then there are other periods of time to be happening all at once. That's what's creating the backups were seeing security checkpoints, and ticket counters."

The waits are something many passengers were not expecting Tuesday.

"No, we didn't," one late traveler said. "We stopped for food, and it just got kind of rushed."

But while the lines are getting longer, the airport says they are not unlike pre-pandemic days. They suspect travelers might have adapted to the era of smaller crowds.

"We know it was easier to get through the process the last two years," Yakel said. "Think back to what it was like in 2018, 2019. You probably give yourself more time back then. That's what we're looking to get back to right now."