Remember four months ago, when everyone was cranky at the Transportation Security Administration because of epically long security screening lines at the nation’s airports? Now that the summer is over, the agency wants everyone to know that it drastically cut wait times in the last few months.
TSA and its pals had their bragging boots on today, with secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson boasting at a news conference that all that hard work airlines, airports, and the government did to reduce lines was worth it: around 98% of fliers waited 30 minutes or less in screening lines this summer, while 92% waited less than 15 minutes, Johnson said. The seven busiest airports in the country had wait times of less than 10 minutes.
Much of that success is due to increased enrollment in the TSA PreCheck program, Johnson says: PreCheck signups more than doubled to 3.5 million amid TSA’s push. Almost 97% of those members wait five minutes or less in security lines, Johnson noted. Another thing that helped? A funding boost from Congress that allowed the agency to hire hundreds of new TSA workers.
That being said, the results wouldn’t be so cheery without the help of airlines and airports, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger pointed out, including the 600 extra workers they contributed to help ease congestion at airports nationwide.
(h/t USA Today)
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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