Atlanta and Washington-Dulles Face Exorbitant Wait Times, and Other Shutdown News
Monday, passengers traveling through Washington-Dulles (IAD) and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport (ATL) faced extra long wait-times when going through security lines, as TSA workers who are not being paid during the government shutdown did not show up for work. Severe weather has led to officers not showing up, the TSA said, but at "higher than a normal snowstorm callout rate."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that in Atlanta there were at least six security lanes closed at domestic terminal TSA security checkpoints, leading to wait times of more than one hour in some cases. Videos shared on social showed the lines snaking all the way into baggage claim.
Washington Dulles is experiencing similar issues after a large number of TSA workers have called out from work. TSA spokesperson Michael Bilello said that the employee and west mezzanine checkpoints at Dulles will close.
Unscheduled absences on a nationwide level were more than double compared to the same time last year, with a whopping 7.6% TSA workers calling out.
(Reporting by Brendon Dorsey)
In other government-shutdown news:
Your next Uber driver might be a TSA screener.
Federal employees are being targeted via social media to work for gig-economy companies such as Lyft, Postmates and Uber during the government shutdown. An example of this can be seen in the #GovernmentShutdown hashtag on Twitter through referral links offered by users who stand to get paid for recruiting new workers.
- Maryland senator visits BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport
Amid the shutdown, BWI went live on Facebook to discuss what the airport is doing with meals, gas and what customers and airlines are doing to help TSA and more with Maryland Senator Ben Cardin. During the stream, they also discuss how missing payments can affect federal jobs in the future due to security-clearance issues involving credit checks.
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