{"id":193699,"date":"2026-03-16T16:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193699\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:56:09","slug":"passengers-stuck-in-2-hour-lines-at-florida-airports-as-spring-break-travel-hits-amid-partial-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193699\/","title":{"rendered":"Passengers Stuck in 2-Hour Lines at Florida Airports as Spring Break Travel Hits amid Partial Government Shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

TSA workers are working without pay as the partial government shutdown continues to impact airports nationwide<\/p>\n

Airports in Florida cities, including Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Orlando, saw extremely long security lines over the weekend<\/p>\n

Other major airports in Atlanta and Chicago also experienced extended wait times and record-breaking passenger numbers<\/p>\n

Travelers waited in excessively long lines at multiple airports across the country over the weekend as spring break travel ramped up amid the partial government shutdown.<\/p>\n

The partial shutdown impacting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has sparked chaos at U.S. airports<\/a> since mid-February as approximately 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers continue to work without pay. Most recently, Florida airports including Orlando, Miami and Fort Lauderdale were hit with long security wait times and delays over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Travelers at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood-International Airport (FLL) reportedly waited in snaking lines for over two hours on Sunday, March 15, as the airport experienced 420 flight delays and 50 cancellations, NBC6<\/a> reports. The line extended outside at one point, as one traveler said he \u201clooked out the door\u201d and saw the line \u201cwrap around the whole airport,” per the outlet.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Miami International Airport (MIA) reportedly experienced unusually long wait times as well, in addition to 505 delays and 23 cancellations.<\/p>\n

\"Long<\/p>\n

Long lines at Fort Lauderdale\u2013Hollywood International Airport
Credit: NBC 6 South Florida\/YouTube<\/p>\n

Orlando International Airport (MCO) also saw delays as travelers waited in long security lines on Saturday, March 14, local news outlet WFTV9<\/a> reports. The Central Florida airport expects 7.4 million passengers to pass through the hub between March 10 and 16, with airport officials advising travelers to arrive more than three hours before their flight during the busy week.<\/p>\n

Passengers experienced similar delays at other airports in the U.S. this past weekend, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Chicago O\u2019Hare International Airport (ORD) and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) in Texas.<\/p>\n

NBC News<\/a> reports one traveler arrived four hours early at AUS for her 2:30 a.m. flight on Sunday and still missed it due to the long security lines. The airport has been sharing updates to its X<\/a> account as well, noting that they are expecting a \u201crecord-breaking\u201d 38,000 travelers on Monday, March 16 and to be prepared to wait in long lines that extend outside.<\/p>\n

\"Travelers<\/p>\n

Travelers wait in long lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on March 16, 2026
Credit: Megan Varner\/Getty<\/p>\n

Another traveler at ORD said it took them about two hours to make it through security on Sunday, while the wait time was expected to be over an hour at ATL, according to NBC News.<\/p>\n

Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n

The travel chaos over the weekend comes after the DHS announced that more than 300 TSA workers have quit amid the partial shutdown, the department shared in an X<\/a> post on Friday, March 13.<\/p>\n

CNN<\/a> reports TSA workers missed their first full paycheck this past weekend since the partial government shutdown began last month. Federal workers impacted by the shutdown received a partial paycheck<\/a> on Feb. 28, PEOPLE previously reported.<\/p>\n

The partial government shutdown began on Feb. 13 after Congress did not approve funding for the DHS, per CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW TSA workers are working without pay as the partial government shutdown continues to impact airports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[90054,90055,20193,249,251,250,2582,1063,3847,75649,90053],"class_list":["post-193699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-airports-in-atlanta","tag-chicago-ohare-international-airport","tag-flight-delays","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-government-shutdown","tag-miami-international-airport","tag-orlando-international-airport","tag-partial-shutdown","tag-security-lines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}