Travelers find smooth landing at U.S. airports
Not all airports report short waits for security screenings, but overall the season starts on a quiet note
Holiday travelers who had braced for long waits instead moved through most airports fairly quickly on Monday.
MIAMI — Travelers who had braced for long lines and long waits were instead moving through most U.S. airports fairly quickly Monday, as the busy Memorial Day travel weekend drew to a close.
“Honestly, it wasn’t too bad,” said Kendra Morehead of Wooster, Ohio, who flew from Detroit to Denver for a conference. “I got to the airport an hour and a half early, but security only took like 15 minutes.”
She added, “I heard a lot of stories about security being understaffed, but everything seemed fine. I guess I would have rather gotten there too early rather than too late, but I don’t think I needed to worry. Everything seemed normal.”
However, the airlines weren’t ready to say “mission accomplished” yet, as it’s just the beginning of the summer travel season.
“Things have been going pretty well so far this weekend, and we are working hard to make sure that we have no repeat of what we saw in Chicago,” American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein said, referring to Chicago O’Hare International Airport, which had some of the worst screening problems in recent weeks.
The airline continues to have a daily call with the Transportation Security Administration to coordinate, Feinstein said.
The TSA began deploying extra canine teams to the busiest airports months ago. The dogs can
screen large groups of passengers for explosives, eliminating the need to remove shoes and laptops, TSA spokesman Mike England said last week.
The extra dogs were concentrated at the nation’s largest airports, but they weren’t used for all screenings, meaning that many travelers still had to observe the usual procedures. England said the extra dogs would remain at security checkpoints well beyond the Memorial Day weekend.
Not everyone, however, had smooth travel experiences. Bob Dunlap of Milford, Mich., expected to wait an hour to get through a security line that snaked from the Denver airport’s cavernous security plaza all the way back to baggage claim.
He had tried to expedite his screening by arriving three hours early and checking his baggage.
“What can you do?” he said with a shrug. “I’ve never been in a line like this for security, ever.”
California’s Sacramento International Airport was crowded but about normal for a holiday travel day, according to an airport dispatcher.
An early morning photo posted on Twitter showed a line into the airport stretching all the way back to a parking garage. The dispatcher said that was taken during the airport’s busiest part of the day and the line had shrunk by late morning.