We do get projections from the airlines on how busy the day will be but they are often wrong. More than one occasion the briefing went "be prepared for a busy day" and it was slow. Or a day that was supposed to be normal we end up moving 8,000 passengers.
Last year they did put on a few more volunteer overtime people in case there were a lot of call offs. With the mandatory overtime rules in effect this year it probably won't matter.

Southwest did some shuffling -- adds in one place generally mean reductions elsewhere. PHL is a new station for them, so obviously there's some expansion. But that did come at the expense of some other markets (so systemwide, it wasn't a capacity change).

Last I checked their fleet orders, they're due about 25 new aircraft next year. That's the extent of their expansion plans, which are on the aggressive side for an airline.

Last year, the Monday after Thanksgiving, I was on a MIA-ATL flight with a TSA employee. He was from Columbus, GA and said that they had flown him down to MIA for the Thanksgiving crunch to assist with the heavy traffic. So, I guess they do add folks for airports that are having heavier than normal traffic.
I understand they can't do that for every airport. However, I guess they can pull from smaller airports. The TSA employee mentioned that there were more people on our plane (a 767) than travel through Colmbus security each day.

Interesting side note, this was the TSA employee's second plane flight ever. His first was the flight down to MIA to work there.

I wonder how often upper management at TSA flies.

Thanks for an interesting post. On one token, I am glad to see the TSA is moving people around to meet demand and believe it is a smart move, but wouldn't it be smarter to add seasonal part-time help or pull from other airports within the region? Perhaps they are already doing this as well (?).

As far as seasonal part-time help, I suppose we would also have to look at the costs of hiring seasonal help and the training vs flying TSA employees around. I suspect, depending on the price of the ticket, it was likely cheaper to fly the TSA employee down to MIA.

[INSERT COMMMENT: I originally assumed CMH, not Columbus, Georgia. I have edited my post to remove my CMH comparison]

Thanks for an interesting post. Personally, I feel more TSA screeners should get out and travel when possible. If given the opportunity, they will see just how inconsistent things are at different airports, among other things.

Best,

SDF_Traveler

There is a group called the National Screening Force which usually do a year of voluntary detail. There are only about 600 screeners across the nation who are part of this screening force.

Not often enough. I am waiting for them to "fly" out of their office, with the door hitting them in the rear on the way out.

(this is in reference to top management, who passes these sick, unamerican policies and things like "secure flight" and "capps II").

For those who haven't, please see www.unsecureflight.com

Papers, Please.
TSA to Start Data Snoop; 54 Million Americans at Risk.

SDF_Traveler

The last figure I saw was that it costs around $10,000 to initially train a screener. Since the length of screening time has increased I am sure the cost is more. The length from initial application to start of training can be more than eight weeks. Hiring seasonal help may not be cost effective because whats to say that the people this season will return next season. Also if a screener is off the line for a certain period of time (i.e. one month)they have to go through retraining/recertification.

I would love to have seasonal help but right now I don't see it as feasible.



True

Columbus, GA (CSG), not Columbus, OH (CMH).

The 767 comment may be correct, or at least pretty darn close.

Ah, my bad and I apologize; I missed the GA when reading the post.

Big difference between the two!

I haven't been to CSG, so I can't comment, but I suspect the screener is more than likely correct in this case!

Best,

SDF_Traveler

Hint: Don't put the bold tags inside the URL tags. I've fixed the URL in the quote above.

Thanks for the heads up and for making the correction with the quote above; I have edited the original post and the URL should work now.

SDF_Traveler

Actually several passengers are kind enough to vocalize the inconsistent rules among the airports everyday so despite the fact that I haven't flown since 1997 i'm well aware of the situation. But it's like I tell dozens of people everyday. "I believe you sir, but all I know is what the managers tell me to do here"

In a perfect world your managers would be more visible so we could complain directly to them.

Is there no limit to the usage of "I'm just doing my job"? Is that a valid excuse for beating a criminal suspect? How about whipping a misdemeanor convict? Kicking puppies? Gassing Jews?

Curious minds want to know...