Mass TSA absences mean flying is a crapshoot right now
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
- The partial government shutdown means more TSA agents are calling out of work.
- While some airports have long lines on some days, they could be relatively short the next.
- Atlanta Airport reprimanded domestic passengers for trying to bypass lines, causing congestion.
You don't want to be cutting it close on your journey to the airport at the moment.
The partial government shutdown means there's no funding for the Department of Homeland Security. As a result, Transportation and Security Administration agents aren't being paid.
Over 300 of them have quit since the start of the shutdown, and more of them are calling out of work. On Sunday, more than 10% of all TSA agents nationwide didn't show up for work, DHS said.
Staffing shortages mean some airports are facing long lines — but it can still be unpredictable where the longest waits will be.
Houston Hobby has been particularly affected by the shutdown. Earlier this month, it saw TSA wait times of three hours.
The DHS also said Hobby had the highest single-day rate of TSA agents calling out, reaching 55% last Saturday.
However, at other times, it has remained relatively calm.
For example, on Wednesday morning, Hobby's website showed lines were just 8 minutes long, or only 7 minutes for passengers with Pre-Check.
On Monday, Business Insider staff flying out of Las Vegas and JFK found minimal TSA wait times.
That's despite JFK having the second-highest rate for TSA agents calling out of work since the start of the shutdown, at 21.4%.
Indeed, the airport's website shows varying lengths at different checkpoints. Terminal 8 had lines over 30 minutes on Wednesday morning, but at Terminals 1, 4, and 7, the lines were less than 10 minutes.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Some passengers appear to have used similar variances to try to speed up their wait until they were called out.
At Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International, the world's busiest airport, the main checkpoint for international fliers had lines up to 100 minutes long on Tuesday.
In a post on X, the airport said it was seeing "increased congestion" caused by "domestic travelers attempting to bypass lines in the domestic terminal."
The next morning, the main domestic checkpoint had waits of over an hour while the international checkpoint had no lines, according to ATL's website.
On Monday, over 37% of TSA agents called out of work at Atlanta, the DHS said.
Ultimately, even though you can check the line lengths at many airports, the situation can be unpredictable.
The easiest way to avoid the stress of missing your flight is to arrive as early as you can. Many airports are advising travelers this week to arrive up to three hours before their flight.
Alongside TSA issues snarling US airports, international fliers have to contend with the ongoing disruption to global travel caused by the war in Iran, and on Wednesday, issues in Europe, where Berlin Brandenburg Airport has closed entirely due to a strike.
While it is only Germany's 3rd-busiest airport, the closure will affect almost 60,000 passengers, according to Flightradar24.