{"id":552771,"date":"2026-03-29T18:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/552771\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T18:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:29:14","slug":"tsa-workers-are-getting-paid-again-but-airport-chaos-isnt-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/552771\/","title":{"rendered":"TSA Workers Are Getting Paid Again, but Airport Chaos Isn’t Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jetsetting has gotten less glamorous \u2014\u00a0and that’s not expected to change even as President Donald Trump<\/a> reinstates pay for Transportation Security Administration workers.<\/p>\n

Trump on Friday directed Homeland Security to start paying TSA workers after Congress failed to agree on a path to end the partial government shutdown<\/a> and fund the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

The DHS said its agents could start seeing paychecks again as soon as Monday, but if you thought that would mean shorter airport security lines, you might want to pack a snack.<\/p>\n

While not everyone is having to wait in hourslong lines, the airline industry is facing an assembly of problems \u2014 war, rising costs, staffing shortages, to name a few \u2014 that are making flying more expensive and stressful.<\/p>\n

Staffing Shortages<\/p>\n

The funding lapse had forced TSA officers, who make a starting salary of about $40,000 and often live paycheck to paycheck, to go without wages for weeks. Hundreds of them quit.<\/p>\n

\"Lauren<\/p>\n

\n Every time Lauren publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!\n <\/p>\n

\n Stay connected to Lauren and get more of their work as it publishes.\n <\/p>\n

Even with the promise of full paychecks to come soon, the TSA will need to address this staffing shortfall.<\/p>\n

Ha Nguyen McNeill, the agency’s deputy administrator, said almost 500 officers have quit since the partial shutdown began in mid-February. More than 1,000 TSA agents also quit during the 43-day government shutdown<\/a> late last year.<\/p>\n

The TSA employs about 50,000 officers, but it takes 4 to 6 months to complete training. That means those long lines might linger a while longer. It’s possible those open roles may not be filled in time for the FIFA World Cup<\/a> in June.<\/p>\n

“This is a dire situation,” McNeill told lawmakers on Wednesday. “We are facing a potential perfect storm of severe staffing shortages and an influx of millions of passengers at our airports.”<\/p>\n

Adam Stahl, the TSA chief of staff, also addressed staffing lapses on Wednesday. He said the situation will “get worse before it gets better” despite Trump’s executive order.<\/p>\n

“There are knock-on ramifications of attrition when the shutdown ends,” Stahl told “The Hill,” a TV news program on NewsNation.<\/p>\n

He added that the recruiting pipeline is a “challenge.”<\/p>\n

“Folks that are possibly in the pipeline or they’re considering going and joining the workforce will be dissuaded because of the lack of job security,” Stahl said.<\/p>\n

Flying is getting pricier<\/p>\n

Jet fuel costs are skyrocketing due to the US and Israel’s war on Iran, which is expected to add to the already elevated cost of flying.<\/p>\n

Prices have surged to about nearly $200 a barrel<\/a> since February, far surpassing the earlier $100 average.<\/p>\n

As a result, some airlines are relying on consumers to cover the additional costs. Qantas Airways, Air India, Thai Air, and other airlines have already alerted flyers that they’re raising ticket prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ongoing military conflict has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway near Iran’s coast through which 20% of the world’s oil supply and liquefied natural gas typically pass. Other major oil hubs<\/a>, including a key port in the United Arab Emirates, have sustained damage.<\/p>\n

The war has also forced some countries to close their airspace, forcing airlines to reroute flights and find alternative routes.<\/p>\n

Mounting anxiety<\/p>\n

None of this is good for the airline industry. Some Americans are increasingly anxious about air travel, which could make them think twice about purchasing costly tickets.<\/p>\n

In an Ipsos survey conducted in February, almost half of respondents said they’re “losing confidence in the safety of air travel.” Respondents with household incomes over $125,000 had even less confidence.<\/p>\n

“That’s likely a worrying stat for the travel industry as the high earners are much more frequent fliers,” the global market research firm wrote in its report.<\/p>\n

Less than 30% of respondents said they felt “confident in the safety of air travel.”<\/p>\n

The survey doesn’t specify a reason. However, there could be several factors, including the war’s impact on international travel<\/a>, rising ticket prices during a time of economic anxiety<\/a>, the fallout from staff shortages, or a string of recent emergencies.<\/p>\n

In January, a passenger jet collided with a Black Hawk helicopter<\/a> near the Reagan Washington National Airport. Sixty-seven people died. And this week, an Air Canada passenger plane<\/a> crashed into a fire truck, killing two pilots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jetsetting has gotten less glamorous \u2014\u00a0and that’s not expected to change even as President Donald Trump reinstates pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-552771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}