Travelers hoping Saturday morning would bring a reprieve from crushingly long security wait times found themselves stuck in some of the slowest moving lines of the week — a turtle’s pace that began to quicken as the day progressed.
Those headed to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport this morning largely heeded advice repeated by officials over and over the last few days: arrive at least three hours before departure time. Delta Air Lines is suggesting getting there four hours early for international flights.
Early Saturday morning, the world’s busiest airport posted wait times of more than two hours at the main domestic checkpoint. At one point, a sea of travelers stood in lines that extended through the baggage claim area.
Word of three-hour waits and missed flights clearly got around for travelers who girded for the tedium of long lines.
Britney Murray of Midtown, on her way with friends to Miami, typically likes to play with fire, often arriving at the gate just minutes before a flight departure. But she knew a friend who got stuck in a line so long early Saturday morning he didn’t make his flight.
So at 10:45 a.m., Murray came to the North checkpoint for a 1:25 p.m. flight and shot a short video of herself in line. “This is bad,” she said, frowning. “I never come this early. Ever.”
When told she’ll make her gate with plenty of time to spare, she looked relieved: “I’m glad I listened to my friends.”
Carter Watson, a Georgia Tech senior, decided to get to the airport with his two friends four hours early for a spring break trip to Hawaii at 9:50 a.m. He was rewarded with a relatively short 50-minute wait.
His knowledge of why these delays were even happening was skin deep. “I know there is a government shutdown,” Carter said. “I know TSA workers aren’t getting paid. Otherwise, I have no clue. The war maybe? I stopped paying attention awhile back.”
George Kune, a Midtown resident on his way to Roanoke, Virginia for work, at 10:30 a.m. asked a Hartsfield-Jackson employee how long the line might take. When she said less than 45 minutes, he did a mini-dance.
“My flight is 1:15 p.m. so I’ll have plenty of time,” Kune said. “But I hate what’s happening to the TSA workers. It’s horrible for them. Justice is not served. People can’t work for nothing.”
Exactly how long you’ll end up cooling your heels depends on numerous variables and some lucky timing. Early morning between 5-9 a.m. is typically among the airport’s busiest times, but Saturday can bring unpredictability as business travel ebbs.
Just before 7 a.m., it was taking 125 minutes to get through the main checkpoint, but about four hours later, the wait time had dropped to a manageable 20 minutes, according to the airport’s tracking site.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Before sunrise, the South security checkpoint, open for TSA PreCheck members and others, was jammed with wait times stretching more than an hour and a half, according to the airport tracker. By 11 a.m., the tracker showed passengers were breezing through.
If you’re flying internationally Saturday, the wait at that checkpoint appears to be brief. Airport spokesperson Alnissa Ruiz-Craig told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution online wait times are manually updated so there may be delays between the posted wait time and current conditions, meaning times may spike and dip.
The airport delays are caused by a one-two punch of high volume as spring break travel gears up combined with Transportation Security Administration staffing issues. A partial government shutdown has pushed some officers to find other work as they’ve gone weeks without pay.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
An estimated 350,000 people are expected to pass through Atlanta airport security checkpoints from Thursday through Sunday, according to officials.
Airports across the nation have struggled as TSA officers call out of work. In Atlanta, the average callout rate during this shutdown is 21.5%, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
— This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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