JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
If you're planning to fly this week, you might want to get to the airport earlier than usual. Like, a lot earlier than usual. Passengers waited for hours at security checkpoints at several major U.S. airports over the weekend as the partial government shutdown stretches into its fourth week.
TAREL HUNTE: It was horrible. It was the worst thing I've ever experienced as far as traveling, and I travel a lot.
SUMMERS: Tarel Hunte (ph) was trying to fly from Belize to Atlanta yesterday, and instead, he spent four hours in the security line at Houston's Hobby Airport and missed his connecting flight.
HUNTE: I land in Houston, and the freaking line is, like, a mile and a half long. Everybody was just frustrated. The agents was frustrated. The people was frustrated. Everybody was just completely frustrated.
SUMMERS: Hunte says he had to buy a second ticket to Atlanta. Member station WRKF spoke to Hunte today at the airport in New Orleans, where he was still waiting for a connecting flight. NPR's Joel Rose covers transportation and is with us now. Hi.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: So, Joel, flyers want to know - how widespread are these problems?
ROSE: Well, we're talking about just a handful of airports so far, but if you were trying to fly out of one of those airports yesterday, it was very ugly. At Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, security lines snaked out of the terminal and into the parking garage. And at Hobby Airport in Houston, as we just heard, passengers reported waiting three to four hours at security checkpoints on Sunday. The airport has been warning travelers to arrive very early. So Wanda Ridge did just that today for her flight to Lubbock, Texas. She spoke to our colleague at Houston Public Media.
WANDA RIDGE: It's kind of making me nervous now to try to fly. I'd rather be sitting here waiting than to be in a panic mode trying to get to my destination.
ROSE: Airport officials in Houston and New Orleans are warning travelers to arrive several hours before their flights to allow enough time to get through security checkpoints.
SUMMERS: OK, but this partial government shutdown, it's been happening for weeks. So why are we seeing these long lines now?
ROSE: The Department of Homeland Security blames the long lines on staffing shortages at these airports. DHS also pointed the finger at Democrats in a series of social media statements over the weekend, although Democrats say Republicans in Congress and the White House are also to blame. DHS has been partially shut down for more than three weeks after lawmakers and the White House failed to agree on changes to how immigration officers operate.
Most employees at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, are considered essential, so they have to work anyway, even though they won't get paid until the shutdown ends. They have already missed part of one paycheck, and they are set to miss a full paycheck later this week. In past shutdowns, this is when we've started to see security officers really miss work in bigger numbers as they call out sick or take on second jobs to make ends meet.
SUMMERS: Joel, what have you heard from the airlines about all of this?
ROSE: Airline and travel industry leaders have been trying to sound the alarm that this was likely to happen. They're urging Congress to end the stalemate over funding for DHS so that at least workers at TSA can get paid. Geoff Freeman is the CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, and here's some of what he said at a press conference last week in D.C.
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GEOFF FREEMAN: They're showing up, they're doing their job and they're not getting paid. It's not just unfair. It's reckless. You can't run an industry with $3 trillion in economic impact on IOUs.
ROSE: February is a relatively quiet time in the aviation business, but now we're getting into the busier months when travel volume starts to pick up around spring break during March and April. So when you combine that higher travel volume with fewer TSA workers, that is a recipe for chaos, like we saw over the weekend.
SUMMERS: NPR's transportation correspondent Joel Rose, thank you.
ROSE: You're welcome.
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