Passengers at the nation’s busiest airport are feeling the pinch of the government shutdown and it’s coming in the forms of long security lines. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is warning passengers to give themselves at least three hours to clear security. #ATL is experiencing longer than usual wait times during peak travel. Please plan ahead and give yourself 3 hours to clear security. ✈️ — Atlanta Airport (@ATLairport) January 14, 2019 The notice comes as the government shutdown has agents with the Transportation Security Administration on the job but without pay. As a result, the agency is experiencing a higher-than-normal absentee rate. Michael Bilello, a spokesperson for the TSA, said the agency’s unscheduled absentee rate Monday was 6.8 percent compared to 2.5 percent one year ago on the same day. Issues with screenings have prompted several airports – including Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Miami International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson – to close terminals and consolidate security checkpoints. Personnel is being relocated to help assist in airports with staffing shortages. “TSA Federal Security Directors, in concert with the airport and servicing airlines will announce when lane closures occur so passengers can plan accordingly,” Bilello said. “TSA will reallocate screening officers on a national basis to meet staffing shortages that cannot be addressed locally. “For questions about terminal closings, travelers should seek current airline and airport information before arriving at the airport,” he added. Alabama’s busiest airport, Birmingham’s Shuttlesworth International, is not reporting extended delays. We want to take time and say thank you to all of the @TSA and @FAANews employees, here @BHMAirport. We appreciate your hard work and service to the Birmingham community! pic.twitter.com/77LboQ8L2c — Shuttlesworth Int'l (@BHMAirport) January 14, 2019 The government shutdown Dec. 22, shuttering many operations of the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Interior, State and Housing and Urban Development. About 800,000 federal employees are either furloughed without pay or at work but not receiving a paycheck until the shutdown ends.<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.<doc-sep>Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, long the world's busiest, saw security lines lasting up to an hour and a half on Monday As the airport security lines around him stretched on for an hour or more, Peter Phillips had a short reaction to all the waiting. “It’s just horrible,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionon Monday of the lengthy delays at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, long the world’s busiest, which saw lines lasting up to an hour and a half. Get push notifications with news, features and more. Photos and videos of the crowds circulated widely on social media. “This may be the longest security line I have ever seen. Even growing up here, and even for a Monday morning,” CNN’s Omar Jimenez wrote on Twitter along with the video of one security line that reached back to the airport entrance. “One passenger told me he’d been waiting over an hour and still had about 30 minutes to go. Writer Aaron Gould Sheinin chronicled an even lengthier delay on Twitter, saying it took him two and a half hours to get through security after arriving to find the line stretched back to baggage claim. The cause? Staffing shortages, according to the AJC, which reported Monday that TSA employees who are required to work without pay during the federal government shutdown have instead been unusually absent from work. In a statement, the TSA said its unscheduled absences on Monday were 6.8 percent nationally — nearly three times the rate a year prior. (The agency declined to release airport-specific figures, citing security concerns.) This follows a CNN report earlier this month, disputed by the TSA at the time, that their employees were calling in sick rather than work without pay. The TSA stressed that “national average wait times” were normal, though “some airports” saw far longer lines, including Atlanta. “Overall, 99.1 percent of passengers waited less than 30 minutes,” the TSA said. The remaining 0.9 percent, or 17,000 people, did not. In a statement last week, an official with the the American Federation of Government Employee, which represents TSA employees, said “some of them have already quit and many are considering quitting the federal workforce because of this shutdown,” according to The Daily Beast. On Sunday the AFGE president said, in part: “These women and men signed up to serve their country, and they do a remarkable job keeping us safe – even when they’re not being compensated to do so.” Sheinin, traveling through Hartsfield-Jackson on Monday, noted unused security checkpoints as he wound his way toward his gate, and the AJC reported that six domestic security lanes were closed. “A lot of people in line have missed their flights,” Phillips told the paper. “There needs to be some sort of Plan B when this stuff happens.” An anonymous air traffic controller speaking with The Daily Beast about Monday’s delays said, “Everything is a mess here. No one knows who is open, who is working or what terminals are functioning. It’s a total s—show that won’t be solved until the shutdown is over.” “Today, we did feel the impact of the federal shutdown more than we have thus far,” an airport spokeswoman told the AJC of Monday’s lines, while also noting the day of the week was already known for higher volume. The TSA said it “made adjustments to maximize all available operational resources” at Hartsfield-Jackson, according to the AJC, but nonetheless advised that “travelers should contact their airline before traveling because times may be affected.” A security checkpoint at one of Houston’s airports reportedly closed Sunday into Monday over similar staffing issues. “As TSA has stated previously, airports in certain locations will begin exercising consolidation options during peak periods,” agency spokesman Michael Bilello told The Daily Beast. “These decisions will be made at the local level.” On Twitter Monday, Hartsfield-Jackson said much the same, tweeting that the airport was “experiencing longer than usual wait times during peak travel. Please plan ahead and give yourself 3 hours to clear security.” On Tuesday morning, the airport said on Twitter that wait times were down to less than 15 minutes. Reached Tuesday morning by phone, a Hartsfield-Jackson spokesman asked for questions to be submitted by email; representatives did not immediately respond. A TSA official did not respond to a request for comment. Some 800,000 federal workers are going without pay — either at work as essential employees or furloughed — while the government remains shutdown over President Donald Trump‘s calls for funding for a border wall, which Congressional Democrats have rejected. One stranded worker is Kristie Scarazzo, a botanist with the government and single mom who recently applied for unemployment benefits while she’s not at work.<doc-sep>
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?