Transportation Security Agency employees working without pay amid a partial government shutdown are calling out from work, causing flyers to brace for long lines and delays at airport checkpoints around the country and in New York.<\/p>\n
Staffing shortages have reached their peak in recent days, more than six weeks after Congress stopped funding Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA. Monday marked the highest TSA agent callout rate \u2014 10.22%\u00a0\u2014 at all airports nationwide, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said via email.<\/p>\n
Transportation experts and officials have been urging passengers to allot extra time for long lines at TSA checkpoints. And while,\u00a0Wednesday, some airports in the New York region seemed to be spared those\u00a0longer security lines, the Port Authority warned about “very long wait times” at some checkpoints\u00a0due to TSA agent callouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just over 30%\u00a0of TSA agents called out at Kennedy Airport on Tuesday, a DHS spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
TIPS FOR TRAVELERSArrive 2 \u00bd hours before a domestic flight, 3 hours before an international flightCheck the websites and social media feeds for most major airports for information about lines and delaysEnroll in TSA PreCheck, a service that cost costs $85 for five years, which allows passengers to be screened ahead of time and bypass some airport securityPack light and avoid checking in baggageMake sure that you have all your travel documents \u2014 tickets, passport and government ID ready when you get to the security checkpointsReview your flight information on your airline’s website or mobile app<\/p>\n
Major airports elsewhere\u00a0have reported even more severe shortages of TSA agents in recent days, according to DHS.<\/p>\n
More than 40%\u00a0of security officials failed to appear at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston on Tuesday. That same day, just over a third of TSA agents called out of work at both Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. That\u00a0nationwide figure dropped slightly the following day.<\/p>\n
At Kennedy, Denver tourists Elina Davidoff, 48, an optometrist, and her husband, Ilya, 55, who is retired from FedEx, arrived at Terminal 5 \u00a0an hour earlier than they would ordinarily after learning about the staffing shortages.<\/p>\n
The couple said they would have preferred having just a bit more time exploring New York City instead of\u00a0arriving early.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to wait in line for too long,” Elina Davidoff said. “I want to spend the time doing something else.”<\/p>\n
That extra hour, it turned out, was not necessary. It took them less than five minutes \u201cto get through TSA,\u201d Davidoff later told Newsday via text.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the Port Authority, which operates five major airports in New York and New Jersey, including Kennedy and LaGuardia, warned that\u00a0the partial government shutdown has impacted both TSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at its airports.<\/p>\n
Shortages of these federal workers \u201cover the last several days\u201d have resulted in \u201cvery long wait times at certain checkpoints,\u201d a Port Authority spokesperson said in an email to Newsday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve deployed additional customer care staff into terminals to help manage queues, assist passengers, and keep people moving as efficiently as possible,\u201d the spokesperson said. They added passengers should still \u201cplan ahead and check our airport websites and their airline apps for the latest, real-time wait times and flight information before heading to the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Passengers at Long Island MacArthur Airport hardly noticed staffing shortages on Wednesday. Patchogue-native Lenny Smith flew from Raleigh, North Carolina, on Breeze Airways to avoid potentially longer wait times at Kennedy Airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can go right through\u201d smaller airports, Smith told NewsdayTV at MacArthur Wednesday. \u201cIt only took about 10 minutes to get through.\u201d<\/p>\n
The security checkpoint at MacArthur was running \u201cefficiently\u201d on Wednesday, airport Commissioner Rob Schneider said in an email via Caroline Smith, the spokeswoman for the Town of Islip, which owns and operates the transportation hub.<\/p>\n
Schneider added the airport is \u201cbeyond grateful to the commitment of the TSA staff.\u201d Smith said the town and airport would not comment on TSA staffing levels.<\/p>\n
In a statement, a Homeland Security spokesperson pinned the shortages on the \u201cDemocrats\u2019 reckless DHS shutdown\u201d that has left TSA officers without a paycheck. Airport security agents endured a similar financial strain last fall, when the longest government shutdown in the nation\u2019s history led the FAA to order some airports to reduce the number of flights<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since Feb. 22, Democrats in Congress have refused to fund Homeland Security until the department reforms Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations following the fatal shootings of two American citizens in Minnesota during the Trump administration\u2019s deportation crackdown, Newsday previously reported<\/a>. Republicans blocked a bill Senate Democrats proposed to pay TSA workers, who are considered essential workers,\u00a0and fund other agencies under DHS while denying funds to ICE.<\/p>\n