Airport Security Lines Improve as TSA Officers Receive Pay During Government Shutdown

The ongoing partial government shutdown, now in its sixth week, has caused major disruptions for travelers at airports across the country. Long security lines, missed flights, and the presence of ICE officers have become common occurrences. However, as TSA officers have begun receiving pay again, wait times at airports are finally returning to normal.

According to Delta’s tracker, as of Thursday afternoon, security wait times at major airports such as LaGuardia (LGA), Atlanta (ATL), and Houston (IAH) have substantially decreased from several hours to just 15 minutes or less. This is also reflected on the airport-operated wait-time trackers, such as the one on LGA’s website, which have resumed reporting after being paused during the shutdown.

Other major airports like Los Angeles (LAX), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Denver (DEN), and Chicago O’Hare (ORD) are reporting wait times of less than 10 minutes, according to their respective websites or FlightQueue. The longest wait times are currently at New York’s JFK airport, ranging from 20 to 30 minutes depending on the terminal. However, this is still significantly shorter than the hour-plus waits that were being reported in previous weeks.

Former TSA administrator John Pistole predicts that within a few weeks, airport checkpoints will be back to normal, unless TSA officer pay is halted again. This comes after an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on March 27 mandated that TSA officers receive backpay. Prior to this, the shutdown had left about 50,000 TSA agents without compensation, resulting in thousands of them calling out sick and causing wait times of up to five hours.

However, the relief may be short-lived. Aaron Barker, a TSA worker and president of AFGE Local 544 (the union representing TSA employees at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport), told local news station 11Alive that if a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not reached soon, the situation could worsen. While grateful for the backpay, Barker stated in a March 30 interview that it does not solve the issue of proper funding for the rest of the fiscal year.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)’s TSA Council 100, which represents TSA workers, has also raised concerns about inaccurate pay stubs that do not reflect correct overtime compensation, tax withholdings, or payments from previous pay periods. They have also expressed concern over the TSA removing their workers’ furlough status rights on March 29.

There may be an end in sight for the shutdown as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced on April 1 that they had reached a deal for a “two-track” plan to end the shutdown in the coming days.