Travelers headed to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Thursday morning faced lengthy security lines that stretched across the airport. The long waits at BWI come amid a funding shutdown that’s resulted in travel disruptions across the US and missed paychecks for workers.
BWI officials warned travelers to arrive at least three hours ahead of their scheduled departure times due to “very long” security lines, said Jonathan Dean, a spokesperson for the airport. One security line near the Southwest Airlines ticket counter stretched past airport doors onto the sidewalk.
Airport and airline personnel are assisting travelers, Dean said, and some airlines are rebooking customers stuck in lines.
“Security checkpoint lines will likely fluctuate throughout the day,” Dean said. “We continue to encourage travelers to plan ahead and arrive very early for their flights.”
The screen showing wait time estimates was glitching as travelers congregated in a line that started well past the usual security entrance for concourse C. The line for security screening started closer to checkpoints D and E, passing through the food court and behind and around an elevator that goes to the Observation Gallery.
Marcie and Nick Fontecchio are “two hours early at the airport” type of people, so their routine wasn’t too different when the couple left this morning for their flight at BWI. They were thinking it was going to be “mayhem,” Marcie Fontecchio said.
When they arrived at concourse C, they didn’t see the long lines outside that had plagued their social media feeds early this morning. Some people had posted wait times at security online that stretched nearly 2 hours.
“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Marcie Fontecchio said. Then, she realized airport officials had simply moved the line inside.
Still, she said the line was moving pretty fast. She estimated they would be through security in 45 minutes, and her family’s flight back home in Austin, Texas, was in two hours at noon.
TSA PreCheck and Clear, which generally offer faster security screening, were both closed at checkpoint C. TSA PreCheck was also closed at checkpoint B.
One employee with Clear stood near the long line, asking people, “Do you want to skip this line today for free?” He told travelers the line generally takes 2-3 minutes. One traveler, however, said it took 17 minutes to get through the Clear line at security checkpoint B on Thursday.
As the partial government shutdown approaches six weeks, TSA workers are going without pay, and security line wait times at some airports have stretched to multiple hours. More than 500 TSA officers have quit and thousands are calling out each day, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The callout rate for BWI on Wednesday was 29%, according to the department.
Senators are expected to vote Thursday on a Republican proposal that would fund the TSA and much of the DHS. It’s expected to fail.
Democrats argue the GOP plan does not go far enough at putting guardrails on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and other federal officers who are engaged in the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
This story will be updated.
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