Originally Posted by Himeno (Post 26315943)

Airlines issue their flight schedules in most cases months ahead of time. There is no reason for TSA not to know how many flights are using each airport at a given time and to set staffing levels according.

Outside of major, sudden schedule changes, there is no reason for TSA not to be able to handle a known amount of passenger flow.

Originally Posted by 11277m (Post 26316946)

Isn't it the case that every passenger is required to pay a fee for TSA as part of their ticket price?

Meaning that when the number of passengers increases, so does the TSA income to pay for the "service".

My annoyance stems from having to stand in line waiting for a service I have already paid for.

Originally Posted by BSBD (Post 26314840)

Here's a link to a release from Airlines For America, which is the official US airlines industry association. It's dated yesterday. It clearly states that the industry expects this Spring to have the most commercial air travelers ever.

"Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, today reviewed 2015 results for U.S. passenger airlines and released its travel forecast, which projects spring 2016 air travel to rise to the highest level ever, with passenger volumes exceeding 2015’s peak by 3 percent. Approximately 140 million passengers (2.3 million per day) are expected to fly on U.S. airlines during March and April compared to 136.2 million passengers in 2015 – a 63,000 passengers-per-day increase. This includes more than 17 million travelers (285,000 per day) on international flights."

http://airlines.org/news/airlines-fo...record-levels/

Originally Posted by chucko (Post 26314894)

It's only one airport, but SeaTac saw a 12.9% increase in traffic in 2015 (and a 7.7% increase the year before):

http://mynorthwest.com/174/2903390/S...-again-in-2015

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist (Post 26318948)

Saving fifteen seconds after standing in line for an hour or two is a negligible improvement.

Originally Posted by Zeeb (Post 26319689)

15 seconds per passenger would mean much shorter waits. The wait time wouldn't be an hour or two minus fifteen seconds. It would be 15 seconds less for every single person in front of you as well, so the lines would move more quickly.

Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much (Post 26319090)

Just speaking statistically, with an average increase of anywhere from 3% - 12.9% in the number of passengers, I can postulate that my wait time would be somewhere between 3% - 13% longer.

So, a 20-minute wait should become a 21 - 23 minute wait. Waiting an hour would be a 300% increase in wait time for a 13% increase in passengers. That just doesn't make sense.

Originally Posted by GUWonder (Post 26321336)

While at SXSW, POTUS admitted he has heard that dealing with the TSA at airports is awful, something he acknowledged while mentioning that he hasn't been subject to the TSA in years. Sounds like he isn't buying it either, even as he says this is a trade-off we just put up with.

Originally Posted by Boggie Dog (Post 26320828)

I think it was said up thread but a 7% increase in travel doesn't explain TSA's 2 plus hour long screening backlogs. This issue is a work slowdown by TSA in order to push through TSA's budget increase.