Hours-long airport security lines; travelers missing their flights; ICE agents at airports. It’s a tale as old as the partial government shutdown, currently on its sixth record-setting week. But now that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers have started receiving pay again, wait times are finally returning to normal at airports across the country.
As of Thursday afternoon, security wait times at air travel hubs LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), and George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) have substantially deflated from several hours to a more recognizable 15 minutes or less, Delta’s tracker shows. Several airport-operated wait-time trackers that had paused reporting amid the shutdown, such as the ones on LGA’s website, are also available again.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Denver International Airport (DEN) and O’Hare International Airport (ORD) are all currently reporting wait times of less than 10 minutes, according to the airports’ websites or FlightQueue. In New York, lines at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) range from a lengthier 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the terminal—although that’s still substantially shorter than the hour-plus waits that were reported in the weeks’ prior.
“Within a few weeks, it will be business as usual at checkpoints, unless TSA officer pay is halted again,” John Pistole, a former TSA administrator, tells Condé Nast Traveler.
TSA officers began receiving backpay this week, as mandated by an executive order that President Donald Trump signed on March 27. Up until then, the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown had left about 50,000 agents without compensation, according to the White House. Almost 500 of them have since quit, while thousands have called out sick, resulting in airport security wait times that had hit highs of five hours.
However, if a deal to fund the DHS is not reached soon, the relief could be temporary, Aaron Barker, TSA worker and president of AFGE Local 544 (the union that represents TSA employees at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport), told local news station 11Alive. “We are grateful to have some funds going to our overdrawn accounts,” he said in the March 30 interview. “But this does not solve the issue of properly funding us through the end of the fiscal year.”
According to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)’s TSA Council 100, which represents TSA workers, some employees have received inaccurate pay stubs that failed to properly reflect their overtime compensation, correct tax withholdings, or the remaining payments from a previous pay period. The union also voiced concerns about the TSA axing their workers’ furlough status rights on March 29.
An end to the shutdown could be in sight: On April 1, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced they had reached a deal for a “two-track” plan to end the shutdown “in the coming days.” The first track would fund most of the DHS—excluding Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE—which could later be funded through a party-line reconciliation bill. However, it’s still not guaranteed that the bill will be passed.
For more insider tips and advice on navigating long lines at the airport, see our guides to TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, Touchless ID Lanes, and VIP airport concierge services.
