Joseph.doakes

Today at ABQ it was 27 blue shirts to 15 Pax. Little pods of 3-5 TSAers were just standing around...as expected. It's not quite 2:1 but its close. Any one seen a higher (or similar) ratio?

ralfp

I've seen open checkpoints with zero pax and 10 or so Stand Arounders (last at MKE).

TEX (2003) the ratio was almost 1:1 for total pax and TSAers.

HSVTSO Dean

HSV on saturday afternoons.

The shift runs from 9:30am - 7:00pm.

Our average passenger flow for the afternoon shift is anywhere from 700-1100 passengers (usually, anyway; it's been slow the past month or so).

HSV primarily services business travelers, though. Not much business travel to be done on saturday, it seems.

Saturday afternoon, the average passenger flow is about 120-200.

By 3 o'clock, it's down to about 20 left.

Two hours of standing around doing nothing later, said twenty people show up for the last flight of the day.

The last hour, hour-and-a-half of the shift is usually spent doing a lot more standing around. After 5pm, we might screen 4-5 people over two hours.

Six full-time TSA personnel (4 at the checkpoint, 2 in checked baggage - minimum staffing requirements) and a supervisor for the whole duration of the shift. And from 12:30pm-5:30pm, we add four part-time TSOs (2 at checkpoint, 2 in baggage).

It gives us a lot of time to catch up on training, as well as clean the checkpoint (all the bins are washed, every surface is dusted, the floors and mats and stuff are vacuumed). We also perform our ETD machine maintenance on saturdays, and I, the Junior Supply Flunky, restock the checkpoint and checked baggage with all the consumable supplies we'll need over the next week (gloves, paper towels, bottles of alcohol, ETD swabs, etc etc).

It's... it's so very, very boring.

scoow

I'm shocked. The bins are actually washed? I didn't think that ever happened.

IslandBased

I have been the only passenger on a commuter flight on occasion. That would put the ratio at 4-1, if you don't count the LEO. In winter the outgoing flights can be hours apart.... And, yes, I was often randomly chosen for a secondary....

coachrowsey

TSA:
Thousands Standing Around.
This thread proves it

Superguy

Last couple times I've gone thru AGS, I've been the only one going thru the line and there have been about 4-5 TSO's milling around the single lane checkpoint.

Travellin' Fool

It never ceases to amaze me the disparity in TSA:PAX ratios between airports. I'd be interested to know who decides the staffing requirements at airports, even more specific, each airport check point. I've gone through PDX where the Southwest side is completely packed, walked over to the other side and breezed through with TSA folks just standing and waiting. Likewise I've been through LAX Terminal 7 which is packed (main floor and the walkway checkpoints) but walked over to Terminal 6 with hardly any wait. (granted I'm sure I just got lucky but still, the point remains)

I've often wondered why, with so many flights, TSA planners at airports like Dulles can't figure out how to move some agents from other overstaffed locations. (God I hate flying out of there!!). Contrast that to say NRT where it takes, on average, 12 minutes to check in, go through security, AND immigration (Immigration sometimes screws the time on that). Or even SFO (International Terminal) where, a few weeks ago, it took 15 minutes from checkin to airside... with a dog. ***And yes I realize that NRT isn't TSA but obviously they know how to plan accordingly...

It boggles my mind sometimes.

Ari

The most I saw was when Spiff went through the checkpoint.

HSVTSO Dean

For all practical purposes, I'd be willing to bet dollars to pesos that every airport does it differently based upon local needs, and what they feel is most efficient.

In HSV, staffing requirements at the airports are done by a guy down in Birmingham (our hub airport) with a system called... SABRE, I think it is.

From what I understand, he puts in the passenger flight load averages that we receive, and the number of screeners on the payroll, along with shift-times. The computer automatically assigns personnel to specific days, and specific areas.

The way we work that in is with annual seniority bids for off-days—the computer throws out the schedule, the names are erased and then we come in based on seniority and pick the off-days we want. If the system has Screener Slot 12 as having Mondays and Tuesdays off, then working four days at the checkpoint and one in checked baggage, and the TSO wants MON/TUE off-days, they'd write their name into the slot. Then, the next screener comes in and picks what they want, so on and so forth, until we get all the way through our 55 (approx.) person workforce.

At the end, we have the two shifts with their schedule designed, and it doesn't change until the next year. If the schedule has you working in baggage Tuesdays and Thursdays and checkpoint for the rest of the time, you're going to be working on that layout for the rest of the year.

jucundus

About three years ago, departing CDR (that's Chadron, NE for the benefit of the infrequent traveller ), there were three of us boarding and five visible TSOs. One of the other two guys was chosen for random secondary, of course.
How do TSOs make a living at such small (presumably subsidized) airports? I think CDR had two daily departures at that time. (One of the TSOs remarked that she hadn't worked for the last two weeks.)

oneofthosepeopleyouloveto hate

Only at the smaller airports, I think.

I've NEVER seen them washed, en masse, at the airport where I work!

(Sometimes a TSO will take the time to wipe up coffee or soda spilled in a single bin, but that's about it.)

It's also possible they're being washed on the midnight shift, or something, and I just don't know about it.

(It's rumored the floor sometimes is mopped on the graveyard shift, too!)

Steve D.

TYS is a relatively small airport- maybe 2000 per day before the recession. Depending on travel levels, we have 22-32 TSA agents to run usually 1, sometimes 2 checkpoints.

steffen0212

Last Thursday in BUD, I was the only pax at the transit checkpoint, with about 9 TSA people drinking coffee.

Steelehc

Last weekend in ANC, we walked past 13 TSOs all sitting in a row at a closed checkpoint, while eight more were working at the open yet empty checkpoint across the way. That's a ratio of 21 TSOs to 0 unscreened pax.

Interestingly, there were several different uniforms present. There were blueshirts of course, one or two whiteshirts, and at least one burgundyshirt.