TSA wait times were exceeding one hour Monday morning. ATLANTA — Extremely long security lines have been reported at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Monday morning. Early Monday morning, wait times for all three Domestic Terminal checkpoints -- Main, North and South -- were running at more than one hour. By 2:30 p.m., wait times had decreased to 30-to-45 minutes at the Main Checkpoint. Wait times at the North and South checkpoints had been reduced to between 15-and-30 minutes. One bright spot was the International Terminal, where wait times were listed at between 15-and-30 minutes all day long. Airport officials are advising that passengers arrive at the security checkpoints at least two hours before their scheduled departure time. However, with the extended lines, adding more time would be advised. Why is there a long wait time at the airport? Last week, the Transportation Security Administration insisted that long wait times being reported by news outlets around the nation were not the result of callouts by TSA employees due to the federal shutdown. However, as the partial government closure rolls into its 24th day TSA says the amount of unscheduled absences has more than doubled from this day last year. A Transportation Security Administration spokesperson told 11Alive on Monday that the agency "experienced a national rate of 7.6 percent of unscheduled absences compared to a 3.2 percent rate one year ago, Monday, January 15, 2018." In addition, a TSA statement was released that pointed out that security standards would remain uncompromised across the nation. "TSA men and women across the country continue to report for work at our nations airports to secure aviation. From passengers to airport personnel, and others making their way through terminals across the country, the kind of words of support have not gone without notice or impact," the statement said. RELATED | Some TSA employees calling off sick during federal shutdown In addition, TSA officials have been insisting that callouts by TSA workers have not limited the effectiveness of the TSA's mission since the beginning of the federal shutdown on December 22. TSA workers are considered "essential employees" and as such, have been forced to work despite not being paid since the beginning of the federal shutdown. On Monday, air traffic controllers joined the crowds in the airport lobby, holding up signs and handing out pamphlets urging people to talk to their lawmakers. One air traffic controller in Atlanta, Dan McCabe says the job is already stressful enough. Now, they are not getting paid. "When you're at work, you're thinking about how to keep airplanes separated. Now you're thinking about keeping planes separated and keeping your medical bills paid for, keeping your car paid for, so it's very stressful," McCabe said. He says politicians in Washington, who are still collecting their paychecks, have forgotten about them. "This is no longer a political debate, it's a human issue," McCabe said. Officials said that more than 51,000 TSA officers remain on the job, though many have called off work since the federal shutdown started. Some workers were calling out simply because they could not afford to pay for childcare or to make ends meet in order to afford to go to work. Octavius Miller, a TSA employee at Hartsfield-Jackson, said he is taking out a short-term loan to make ends meet and support his infant daughter during this period. “When we do things like this for political show-boating, I feel like the people become pawns, and I feel like me and my coworkers have become pawns in this game,” Miller said. “I have a lot of responsibilities I have to take care of.” He lives about 45 minutes from the airport and said he keeps working because he wants to make sure he has a job at the end of the shutdown. What is the wait time at Atlanta's airport?<doc-sep>Airport security lines are always a concern for harried travelers, but the worry has intensified with the government shutdown. TSA agents, who are working without pay, are calling in sick at higher than normal rates, the agency concedes, leaving some airports short staffed. On Monday, Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest airport in the world, had checkpoint waits of nearly 90 minutes. The airport also had the longest wait time in the country Wednesday, according to the TSA, but the waits grew shorter, to 39 minutes. Overall on Wednesday, the TSA said 99.9 percent of passengers waited less than 30 minutes and 95.4 percent waited less than 10 minutes in standard lines. USA TODAY is checking in daily with top U.S. airports to monitor wait times. Note that many busy airports don't post wait times on their websites. Want to check the situation at your home airport or vacation destination? Download the TSA's My TSA App to monitor estimated wait times at any airport. Here's the situation as of 6 p.m. ET on Thursday ahead of a busy holiday travel weekend. Times posted are the longest wait times. Wait times vary by terminal and time period. Atlanta: 15-30 minutes for domestic checkpoints, less than 15 minutes at international checkpoint. Denver: 12 minutes at North Security, 14 at Bridge Security and 16 minutes at South Security. New York JFK: Terminals 1, 2, 7 and 8 have wait times of 12 minutes or less. Terminal 5 is showing a maximum wait of 19 minutes, while Terminal 4 is 35 minutes. New York LaGuardia: 3-7 minutes. The longest waits are in A and D gates in Terminal B. Phoenix: 6-13 minutes. The longest wait is at the A gates in Terminal 4. Minneapolis: 5 minutes or less in Terminal 2 (Humphrey terminal.) Terminal 1 (Lindbergh) terminal figures not available due to construction.<doc-sep>The Transportation Security Administration says wait times at security checkpoints are largely returning to the “normal” range following reports of longer-than-average lines at airports across the country. On Wednesday, the TSA reported that “overall, passengers waited less than 30 minutes” the previous day, and 97.3 percent of passengers waited less than 15 minutes at screening checkpoints. PreCheck passengers, on average, waited less than 10. TRAIN OUTSIDE ATLANTA AIRPORT DERAILS, SLOWS TRAFFIC TO AIR HUB For reference, the TSA added that national average wait times are usually under 30 minutes for standard lanes and 10 minutes for TSA PreCheck lanes. On Jan. 14, the TSA had reported there being longer wait times at several airports, though most still fell within the normal range. The report of delays came following news of passengers experiencing crowds at airports across the country, allegedly due to staffers calling out of work as a result of not receiving paychecks during the partial government shutdown. In a press release, the TSA admitted that some airports were indeed experiencing “longer than usual wait times,” but shared data from 42 top airports that suggested only a few were affected, and only by a few minutes outside of the standard wait times. AIRLINE PASSENGER CAUGHT TRYING TO SMUGGLE LIVE SNAKE ON FLIGHT Wednesday’s press release further confirmed an unscheduled absence rate of 6.1 percent on Tuesday, as compared to a 3.7 percent rate the same date one year prior. Despite this, the TSA says “aviation security remains an essential priority, and TSA does not want to create any perception that an adversary could use specific information to determine possible vulnerabilities.” The TSA confirmed that some airports would also “exercise contingency plans” in order to ensure effective security. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The announcement comes just days after Miami International Airport closed down a terminal and diverted passengers through other security checkpoints over the weekend, and amid the ongoing closure of a security checkpoint inside a terminal at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which was closed Sunday due to "staffing issues.”<doc-sep>
Wait times are down at the nation’s busiest airport but remain the longest in the country as the Transportation Security Administration continues to battle absenteeism among officers who aren’t being paid during the government shutdown. According to TSA figures, the wait time yesterday at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport averaged 39 minutes, down from 88 minutes the day before. Double-digit wait times were reported at almost every airport, including heavily traveled Seattle (29 minutes), Newark (27 minutes); and Reagan National in Washington, D.C. (24 minutes). On Thursday, passengers were waiting up to 45 minutes in line to clear checkpoints. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting TSA brought in 20 officers from other cities to Atlanta to help staff checkpoints after passengers reported two hour waits earlier in the week. Officials in Atlanta are advising people to arrive at the airport at least three hours ahead of their flight to clear their safety checkpoint. The longer wait times are due in part to absenteeism among TSA agents. TSA screened 1.79 million passengers yesterday; 99 percent of passengers reported waiting less than 30 minutes as travel at smaller airports hasn’t been majorly impacted. According to TSA figures, the agency experienced a national rate of 6.1 percent of unscheduled absences yesterday compared to a 5 percent rate one year ago on the same day. “Many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations,” TSA said in its daily recap. More than 51,000 TSA officers are on the job but not being paid during the government shutdown. TSA is one of the lowest-paying federal agencies, with the typical starting salary of an agent around $17,000 - $25,000.