Hourslong waits and flight cancellations continued at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Tuesday, as the partial government shutdown and storms wreak havoc on air travel.
Security lines reached nearly two hours long again Tuesday morning, according to wait times posted by the Atlanta airport — though actual wait times can be even longer.
And more than 200 Atlanta flights were canceled by mid-morning, according to FlightAware.com.
Delta Air Lines canceled more than 290 flights for Tuesday across its network by mid-morning, as the airline recovers from a storm that hit its Atlanta hub the previous day. Some Delta flights were also delayed early Tuesday morning with a ground stop in place to temporarily halt some departures headed to Atlanta, as Delta worked to manage its operations at Hartsfield-Jackson.
Delta had 675 flights cancellations across its system Monday. More than 500 flights were canceled Monday at Hartsfield-Jackson on Delta and other airlines.
Tuesdays are typically one of the slower travel periods of the week, but that has been upended by the weather disruptions and the partial government shutdown that has exacerbated long security waits.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
The shutdown has left Transportation Security Administration officers working without pay for weeks. As some of them are forced to find other work to pay their bills, that’s causing staffing shortages at checkpoints.
Amid the short-staffing, one of the four security checkpoints in the domestic terminal has been closed during some of the busiest periods.
The Lower North checkpoint was still closed Tuesday morning — driving longer lines at the remaining checkpoint.
Johns Creek resident Shawn Koch and his daughter, Phoebe Koch, got to Hartsfield-Jackson three hours before their flight to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for a spring break trip. They found themselves waiting in a line that started just inside the doors to the domestic terminal, and wound down the corridor and through baggage claim, with an estimated wait of more than an hour and a half.
“We’ve heard lines are bad,” Shawn Koch said. But, “this is new … I’ve never seen it loop around baggage claim. It’s pretty intense.”
“People don’t know where the beginning or the end of the line is, so I think people are just kind of going with the flow,” he said. But, he called it “a small inconvenience for the privilege to fly.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
Airline CEOs sent an open letter to Congress on Sunday calling on it to resolve the shutdown.
They said in the letter that checkpoint wait times of “2, 3 and even 4 hours have been reported,” and airlines are trying to mitigate disruption by holding flights for late passengers and handling rebookings.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian on CNBC Tuesday morning discussed how the shutdown that halted funding for TSA officers’ pay has been affecting operations in Atlanta, causing long lines.
“It’s inexcusable that our security agents, front-line workers central to what we do, are not being paid. It’s ridiculous to see them used as political chips. We’re outraged,” Bastian said. “Let’s get our people who are essential to our security paid quickly.”
He said some of Delta’s customers have missed flights because of the TSA staffing issues.
“We do our best to hold flights where we can,” Bastian said.
Flight disruptions from winter weather have also exacerbated lines as flights ramp back up after the storm, as stranded travelers rush to the airport to try to catch flights back home or to their destinations.
But by mid-Tuesday morning at Hartsfield-Jackson, some of the lines had alleviated, with fewer lines stretching through the terminal.
The government shutdown and flight disruptions have made for wide swings in security wait times, making it an unpredictable situation for travelers trying to get to the airport with enough time to make it through lines.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
During some of the busiest periods, Hartsfield-Jackson has been manually updating some of its estimated wait times “because things keep changing,” said Michael Smith, business adviser to Hartsfield-Jackson’s general manager, on Tuesday.
During busy periods security waits can be more than an hour and a half long, while in nonpeak times there may be hardly any wait at all. Yet long waits are popping up at unexpected times because of staffing shortages.
Christine Van Loo of Athens waited in an Atlanta airport security line Tuesday morning that wound through baggage claim for a flight to Las Vegas, calling it “unbelievable, awful.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to miss my flight and I’m here early,” she said. “I have no idea how long the line’s gonna be, but it’s winding in and out like this giant snake.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
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