Security Screener SNAFU Stalls Seattle-ites

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Sunday was a particularly heavy travel day, and that passenger traffic is 'way up, over last year, approaching the volume of pre-September 11. So the TSA kept a bunch of screeners at home, and caused additional delays.

The airlines are sure to be pleased by having a governmental agency's actions responsible for their 'late-pushback' times. The P-I quoted an airline spokesman who told the paper that, during the mid-day push, "United Airlines held about 10 flights for up to 25 minutes each to accommodate passengers slowed to a crawl at the security checkpoints."

It was so bad that United held flights, rather than tick off passengers. Alaska, too, it was reported, held flights a quarter hour or so. Delays of up to 2� hours were reported, for individual passengers, many of whom had to be rebooked.

Labor unrest in the screener ranks [or conversely, mismanagement] was cited by the paper as the foundation of the trouble: "a TSA worker at Sea-Tac who requested anonymity said the agency had scaled back its staffing levels by a third on Sundays and Mondays after screeners threatened a walkout over lack of time off."

With Sea-Tac's passenger traffic up by nearly 20% over year-ago levels, and with the TSA's job-cutting and labor troubles, one could expect things to take a while to improve.

FMI: www.tsa.gov