ATLANTA — If you are flying out of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, some last minute changes are being made to help prevent longer lines at the security checkpoints.
While the airport traffic started to pick up earlier this week, the busiest travel day is expected to be Friday. More than 85,000 passengers are expected to be screened by the TSA.
Many passengers are hoping to avoid the long lines that people saw last weekend.
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Channel 2′s Veronica Griffin confirmed with the Transportation Security Administration that an unexpected number of employees calling out sick created the long lines on Saturday.
“There were certainly folks that that waited longer than what we would like to see in the lobby at the airport. So we take that very seriously,” Robert Spinden said.
The TSA security director for Georgia told Griffin that a large number of employees called out sick. Spinden said they usually prepare for employee callouts, but the number last week caught them off guard.
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He said they have made changes this week to address the longer lines.
“We’re hiring some additional overtime. We saw that in place today. We screened about 31,000 passengers in about 30 mins at the peak. You’ll see some additional K9s and more lanes open, things like that,” he said.
Spinden added that TSA also opened the checkpoint lines 30 minutes earlier in the morning. But as always, airport officials want to remind passengers to arrive two and half to three hours early.
You can keep track of TSA waiting times on the airport’s website HERE.
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