One thing became clear to Jason Urasner as he waited over 90 minutes at a TSA checkpoint on Sunday: He was going to miss his flight.
“It is actual chaos,” Urasner, 40, told Business Insider. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Urasner had arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City that morning to board a JetBlue flight to Salt Lake City, but his plans were derailed by what he called a “complete disaster.”
“There is nobody directing anyone or managing the line. There are a few port authority officers standing around letting people in one by one to the main TSA line, but the line is coming from all directions,” Uranser said. “Most of the people who have actually been waiting in line aren’t even going anywhere.”
Airport workers at JFK’s Terminal 4 used baggage carts to ferry stanchions from one end of the building to the other as they redsigned lines to create more room for passengers to wait. Travelers watched as a digital clock estimating wait times continuously ticked up.
Some passengers used the time to sign up for CLEAR, a paid membership that costs more than $200 a year. It verifies travelers’ identities and allows them to bypass the standard TSA document check.
The potential for long waits and daunting lines is a new reality for travelers at US airports as the partial government shutdown drags on. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, remains unfunded as lawmakers debate immigration enforcement policy. That has left TSA officers unpaid for 5 weeks now. More than 400 TSA officers have quit since mid-February, according to The White House, compounding the ongoing staffing shortage and leading to disruptions at major airports.
On Sunday, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said TSA officers can’t make ends meet on $0 paychecks. Their salaries start around $40,000 annually.
“They’re going to take other jobs to put food on the table and pay the rent,” Duffy said on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” “I do think it’s going to get much worse, and as it gets worse, I think that puts pressure on Congress to come to a resolution.”
It is not uncommon for travel chaos to motivate lawmakers to find a compromise to fund the government. During the last full government shutdown, an air traffic controller shortage ultimately forced an end to the impasse.
Urasner said he rebooked his flight for a Monday and was advised to arrive at 4 a.m., when TSA opens. Other travelers are facing similar challenges.
Lily Katzman, a senior editor on Business Insider’s Special Projects team, was stuck in a line at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport early Sunday morning.
She joined the line at 6:45 a.m., more than five hours before her flight to Los Angeles.
“When I arrived at the airport, staff ushered everyone to the garage parking lot, where we joined a line that had already snaked twice around the entire first level of the lot. At this point, there was no TSA Pre-Check, and CLEAR was not allowing in-person registrations,” she said.
Katzman said she stood in line for about 90 minutes before being directed to another line.
Adam Gray/Getty Images
“After we entered the airport, we learned that we still had to head up an escalator and enter another snaked line to security. We were told once you get inside, it’s up to another two hours on top of the time in the garage.”
New Orleans International on Sunday advised travelers to arrive at least three hours before their flight.
Amid the mounting disruption, President Donald Trump on Saturday said he will send ICE agents to replace TSA officers at airports nationwide. White House Border Czar Tom Homan confirmed the plan on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“We’ll have a plan by the end of today what airports we’re starting with and where we’re sending them,” Homan said.
The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which includes TSA officers, criticized the decision in a statement on Sunday.
“Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe,” Everett Kelley said. “They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”
