Queuing up at the Orlando airport last week, en route to giving a lecture at Tulane University, I encountered a 40+ minute wait for TSA security checks. Returning from New Orleans a few days later, the TSA walk through took less than 2 minutes. Reading the Wall Street Journal’s article “Airport Security Lines Grow” that day (March 3, 2016), leads me to believe this is a good topic for class when you cover Waiting Line Models in Module D. Here is what the Journal writes: “Longer lines are the result of a collision of three changes: reduced staffing from federal budget cuts, a surge in travelers at some airports, and efforts to fix significant screening lapses.”
Current staffing is about 41,000 screeners, below the congressional cap of 42,500, and 5,600 fewer screeners than in 2011. At the same time, TSA has been intentionally slowing down security screening to tighten it up. This comes after some failures to identify weapons and other mistakes during covert government testing.
It is not just Orlando International. Chicago O’Hare has had lines this week snaking through concourses, delaying hundreds of flights. Atlanta has seen peak-time security screening waits of an hour recently because checkpoints are “woefully understaffed.” TSA and airlines have started advising travelers to arrive up to 2 hours before a domestic departure and 3 hours for international flights.
American Airlines says it has had to delay hundreds of flights in January. At Delta’s New York Kennedy terminal, the PreCheck expedited screening line stretched almost out the building door on a recent Friday morning. Airports in Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle and Miami all say they have seen longer lines at checkpoints over the past two months.
Classroom discussion questions:
- What tools in the text could be used to analyze this queuing problem?
- Why the vast disparity between Orlando and New Orleans TSA?
Barry,
There’s a 3rd and important question I would ask a class. 3. What’s the impact of the TSA suggestion to show up 2 hours before your flight?
Of course, advancing demand arrival does nothing for capacity — unless some otherwise idle capacity is used, which is highly unlikely. The real purpose is for TSA to shift blame for a missed flight from the TSA to the passenger if they arrive less than 2 hours prior.
But a second issue is that it increases congestion. The snakes now have to handle 2 hours worth of passengers rather than 1.5 hours worth. (dumb) The congestion leads to muri for our customer-workers — more stress.
TSA is a pet peeve of mine, as you may recall. And when they do this, it really irks me. I wish some reporter would ask them if they understand the impact of their decisions.
Cheers, Fred
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Excellent observations, Fred. This once again shows why our discipline is so important. We ask the right questions and have the tools to analyze and solve.