Airline travelers get a break from long security lines

Additional screening lanes, use of dogs ease waiting times

ATLANTA — Travelers who were dreading long airport security lines ahead of the Memorial Day weekend instead reported moving quickly through checkpoints Friday after authorities opened extra screening lanes and used bombsniffing dogs to give some passengers a break from removing their shoes.

“Wow. I mean, wow,” said Mike Saresky, who flew to Chicago from Philadelphia, where he breezed through airport security in 12 minutes and got to leave his shoes on. “I thought it was going to be a lot worse.”

The extra dogs were concentrated at the nation’s largest airports, but they were not used for all screenings, meaning that many travelers still had to observe the usual procedures.

But as the summer travel season kicked off, the federal Transportation Security Administration tried to offer travelers some relief after weeks of slow-moving lines blamed on more air travelers and a shortage of TSA security officers.

A TSA spokesman said the extra dogs would remain beyond the holiday.

At Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, known as the world’s busiest, all 16 security lanes at the main checkpoint were open Friday morning as a bomb-sniffing dog and its handler walked among waiting passengers. Wait times were slashed to less than 15 minutes, compared with backups of nearly an hour in recent weeks.

The TSA began deploying extra canine teams to the busiest airports months ago. While the goal was to shorten waits at larger airports, the reshuffling could also result in longer lines at airports that lost dog teams.

The dogs “have the ability to screen large groups of passengers for explosives, making the removal of shoes and laptops and such unnecessary,” TSA spokesman Mike England said.

The agency has 900 dog teams nationwide, Mr. England said. He declined to say which airports they were sent to for the holiday weekend or how long they might stay.

“This is not just for Memorial Day weekend,” Mr. England said.

At O’Hare Airport in Chicago, which had some of the worst screening meltdowns in recent weeks, lines moved briskly Friday, though they still swelled at times. Typical security procedures appeared to be in place, with passengers removing belts and shoes and taking computers from bags and items out of pockets. Bomb-sniffing dogs were making rounds in pre-security areas.

Terri Hale, arriving in Chicago from Cleveland, said security there seemed, if anything, tighter than usual. Passing through the millimeter-wave scanner, she was stopped and asked to empty her pocket for what turned out to be a tiny piece of foil from a gum wrapper.

Nationwide, AAA estimated that 2.6 million Americans would fly during the long weekend.