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TSA Pledges To Help Reduce Wait Times At Atlanta Airport

March 8th, 2016

FILE – In this Aug. 3, 2011, file photo, airline passengers retrieve their scanned belongings while going through the Transportation Security Administration security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in Atlanta. Airline executives said Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012, at a global aviation conference that Airport security needs to undergo a radical overhaul or else passengers will become further disgruntled, lines will grow and terminals will be overwhelmed. “We simply can’t cope with the expected volume of passengers with the way things are today,” said Tony Tyler, director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association, the airlines’ trade group. (AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser, File)

Erik S. Lesser, File / Associated Press

Transportation Security Administration officials say they’ll work to cut down wait times at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, about a month after the airport manager threatened to privatize security.

TSA Administrator Peter Neffinger met with airport officials Monday, pledging to put in fixes before the busy summer season.

TSA regional spokesman Mark Howell said Tuesday that changes include increasing overtime, bringing in more security dogs and speeding up training for new hires.

“The big thing is the really big increase in the number of people who are traveling,” Howell said.

Atlanta’s airport saw a 14 percent increase in passenger volume year over year, which is double the national average, according to Howell. Last year, Hartsfield-Jackson welcomed more than 100 million people, a record for the world’s busiest passenger airport.

Meanwhile, Howell says TSA is at its lowest staffing level in five years, about 5,600 positions short of where it was in 2012. Howell says the agency avoided having to cut another 1,600 positions this year, and has requested funds for an additional 300 security positions nationally in the federal 2017 fiscal year budget.

In a statement Tuesday, airport spokesman Reese McCraine called the meeting with the TSA administrator “productive.”

“We look forward to partnering on operational enhancements that will reduce wait times for passengers while maintaining the highest level of security measures,” McCraine said.

In a letter last month, Hartsfield-Jackson General Manager Miguel Southwell threatened to privatize the security screening process because of increasing security wait times. He wrote that in between March and October 2015, wait times frequently exceeded 35 minutes and sometimes neared an hour.

“We fear an even busier summer this year,” Southwell wrote in the letter. “And we know of no staffing plans to service the mammoth growth.”