Just before the beginning of summer, Secretary Johnson and TSA Administrator Neffenger set forth an aggressive plan for addressing wait times at the nation’s busiest airports without compromising aviation security. That was some 217 million passengers ago.
Speaking at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday, Secretary Johnson outlined the results:
DHS photo by Barry Bahler, Office of Public Affairs
“Through a lot of hard work by the frontlines of TSA represented by the people standing behind us and their leaders represented by Administrator Neffenger we reduced wait times without compromising security.”
DHS photo by Barry Bahler, Office of Public Affairs
“We expedited the hiring of 1,368 new TSOs. We converted 1,865 TSOs from part time to full time. We received great assistance from airport and airline personnel. Some 600 personnel contributed to the work at security checkpoints of a non-security nature. We brought on more canine teams for pass screening. TSOs from around the country volunteered to work at some of the nation’s busiest airports and redeployed to help out.”
DHS photo by Barry Bahler, Office of Public Affairs
“The result of all of this hard work is that this summer, 98.4% of the traveling public had a wait time of less than 30 minutes across the country. 92.1% had a wait time of less than 15 minutes. Members of TSA pre-check, 96.6% had a wait time of five minutes or less. Today, at our nation’s seven busiest airports, average wait time is less than 10 minutes.”
DHS photo by Barry Bahler, Office of Public Affairs
“In all, we should thank the men and women of TSA who every day work to keep the American public safe. My request to the public, next time you see a TSA officer at an airport at a checkpoint, just say thank you.”