A screen showing wait time estimates at the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall airport was glitching Thursday morning. Travelers waited in a security line that stretched far beyond the usual entrance for Concourse C, snaking through the food court and around an elevator to the Observation Gallery.
At around 7 a.m., the line stretched even further, going outside the airport. Travelers reported waiting for around two hours. Nearly four hours later, lines had largely cleared. Travelers arriving then made it through security in about 10 minutes.
BWI urged 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. The long waits at BWI come amid a funding shutdown that’s resulted in travel disruptions across the US and missed paychecks for Transportation Security Administration workers.
“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.”
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.
And it was, to some extent. Airport and airline personnel were assisting travelers, Dean said, and some airlines were rebooking customers stuck in lines. Other security checkpoints at BWI were moving smoothly on Thursday morning.
When the Fontecchio arrived at concourse C, they didn’t see the long lines outside from their social media feeds early this morning.
“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Marcie Fontecchio said. Then she realized airport officials had simply moved the line inside.
Still, the line was moving pretty fast, she said. She estimated they would be through security in 45 minutes, and her family’s flight back home to Austin, Texas, was in two hours at noon.
Around 10:20 a.m., the Fontecchios made it through security. “30 minutes,” Marcie Fontecchio wrote in a text message. “Not bad at all.”
Security checkpoint A was closed Thursday, as it has been regularly over the past couple of weeks due to staffing issues, Dean said in an email. 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 Clear 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.
Funding deal unclear
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.
Gov. Wes Moore announced Wednesday he authorized a second round of no-interest loans for federal workers in the state — including TSA workers at BWI. TSA workers are the largest group of current applicants to the Federal Shutdown Loan Program, which gives federal employees $700 no-interest checks as they work amidst a shutdown, at 42%, state officials said.
“I know it’s not a substitute for a paycheck, but we’re going to do everything we can do to help get them through this crisis,” Moore said in a post on social media.
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 that 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.
Democrats have attempted to provide standalone funding for TSA and other agencies, but Republicans have repeatedly blocked those efforts.
With Congress set to leave town by week’s end for its own spring break recess, calls are intensifying for an end to the stalemate. On Wednesday, acting TSA head Ha Nguyen McNeill said the agency may have to shut down operations at some airports if the budget impasse drags on.
The Associated Press and The Banner’s Darreonna Davis contributed to this article.
This story will be updated.
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