Multiple news outlets have reported that passengers at airports across the country have seen increased wait times due to short-staffing at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). We addressed this matter in a post just yesterday.
On Thursday, according to Reuters, an American Airlines executive testified before a congressional subcommittee that “airport screening delays have caused more than 70,000 American Airlines customers and 40,000 checked bags to miss their flights this year.”
Kansas City International Airport (MCI) uses a private security firm rather than the TSA, and I wrote to American Airlines to ask if they tracked the number of flights missed as MCI due to security. Their media representative quickly responded that they do track it, “but at the current time, we haven’t seen an issue at MCI for American.”
Proponents of building a new, $1.2 billion terminal at MCI are going to show pictures of as many long lines as they can at MCI to justify the expense. But there are long lines all over the country—even in new, single-terminal airports. At least for one airline, MCI is not seeing the problems that are occurring elsewhere.
