Originally Posted by sahara

DCA still was an awful mess on Sunday afternoon. The regular security line for the South Pier (DL/CO) stretched all the way back to the Cibo Bistro restaurant. The elite security line was about half that length. It took 30 minutes to clear security in the elite line and about an hour in the regular line. I have flown out of that concourse every Sunday afternoon/evening for years now and have never waited more than five minutes to clear security in either the regular or elite lane until yesterday. As was noted a few days ago, the backlog was because of the two new strip machines located there. The machines have changed DCA from a super efficient airport at the security check point to a very slow, clogged process.