Some coverage of the latest meeting of the Atlanta city council's transportation committee:
AJC.com: Hartsfield-Jackson’s threat of privatizing security prompts talks with TSA (February 24, 2016)
A short excerpt:
In the last two, three weeks, [wait times] could reach as high as 50, 52 minutes,” [Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Miguel Southwell] said. “That’s simply unacceptable.”
As passenger counts increase at the world’s busiest airport, “TSA simply is not reacting fast enough” to add staff, Southwell said Wednesday during remarks to the Atlanta city council’s transportation committee.
But he said after conversations with TSA in the last week and a half, “We believe with the commitments we received, we should see… additional resources, including employees, canine teams” and new technology to process passengers.
and
Southwell said private contractors may be able to use a greater share of part-time workers than TSA does to handle the fluctuations of passenger volumes through security checkpoints. TSA has a unionized workforce.
But he said that after conversations with TSA, “I believe we have the commitment that we were seeking,” with plans for TSA to work with Hartsfield-Jackson to “provide as many employees as possible” in the next 30 to 60 days. Southwell plans to meet with Neffenger on Monday on the issue.