Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field were mostly normal Monday morning, defying long lines and worker shortages that have snarled passengers at other busy travel hubs as spring break comes to a close.
On Monday, ICE agents began deployment to U.S. airports to support aviation security amid an ongoing partial government shutdown that’s created massive personnel shortages, and kept flyers tied up at long checkpoints.
Related
At DFW Airport, the central hub of Fort Worth-based American Airlines, the wait time at seven of the 12 open checkpoints was between 0 to 10 minutes. Five other checkpoints had a wait between 11 and 23 minutes. The longest checkpoint wait time, in Terminal E, was 21 minutes as of early Monday.
At Love Field, the general boarding security line was a three minute wait, with the TSA PreCheck Lane being just a one minute wait. Southwest Airlines is the dominant carrier at Love Field, and operates out of 18 of the airport’s 20 gates.
Aviation News
TSA officers are currently going unpaid during the shutdown and more than 400 have quit since the funding pause began in February, according to media reports.
Some major airports across the country in Houston, Austin, New Orleans and more have seen chaotically long security lines in the wake of the shutdown, which coincided with a busy spring break travel period.
However, similarly chaotic conditions have not been replicated at either DFW or Love Field. Given that, it’s not immediately clear if ICE agents will be deployed to either local airport this week.
DFW Airport referred The Dallas Morning News to the Department of Homeland Security for more information.
Media representatives for the TSA and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Media representatives for Love Field also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.