The privilege of an @AskTSA body scan at O'Hare required 62 minutes of line time this evening. #iHateTheWait pic.twitter.com/5aWPuJ27zX
— Sean Maday (@seanmaday) May 12, 2016
It's a widely known fact among American travelers that if Dante had ever been through a TSA checkpoint, there would have been ten circles of hell. And the experience of gritting your teeth through a slowly moving line while stressing about missing your flight and sighing really, really loudly the whole time is only getting more hellish.
But the TSA has a solution (sort of).
With summer traveling season right around the corner, the Department of Homeland Security has announced an "aggressive plan" to cut down wait times at airports. Last week Congress signed off on $34 million in additional funding for TSA, which will go towards paying overtime to existing staff and hiring and additional 768 security screeners. They'll also be promoting TSA PreCheck and upping the number of canine units in airports across the country.
It couldn't come at a better time. Over the past month, airports across the country have had problems with ridiculously long lines for security, in some cases sticking weary travelers in a queue for more than two hours. The TSA has done such an awful job of getting people through security in a timely manner that New York's Port Authority floated the idea of replacing the agency at LaGuardia, Newark and JFK airports with a private organization.
U.S.-based airline companies are fed up with the TSA as well. The trade organization Airlines for America recently launched a social media campaign dubbed #IHatetheWait that encourages frustrated fliers to internet shame the TSA's shortcomings. The campaign caught fire, and disgruntled people around the country have been sharing photos of the sort of massive lines that not even Beyonce could attract.
There have been no announcements regarding any changes to the security process itself. Everyone will still have to take their goddamn shoes off, stick their laptops in a separate bin and be scolded by a security official after petting their adorable bomb-sniffing dog.
So if you're traveling this summer, may god have mercy on your soul. It doesn't seem like this problem is going to get better any time soon.