Last weekend O’Hare International Airport in Chicago sent out a notice to anyone on an outgoing flight. The notice was direct: because of long security lines, get to the airport three hours before your flight. Three. Hours. Here is the lede from an ABC report out of Chicago:
“Security lines at airports in Chicago and across the country are longer than ever. Now airlines are fighting back.
About 450 American Airlines passengers trying to fly out of O’Hare International Airport Sunday night couldn’t get to the gate on time. Airport employees offered them cots to sleep on overnight.
Our Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is “charged with providing effective and efficient security for passenger and freight transportation in the United States.”
I had to read that twice. And then again. One word keeps jumping out. Efficient.
If ever a government agency was INEFFICIENT it’s the TSA. I read that since 9/11 we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars ensuring our security at airports. Almost fifteen years later (to me that seems like a long time) the head of Homeland Security said the department and the TSA have finally developed a plan to reduce travelers wait time.
Fifteen years later.
What a novel idea.
It is now May, which means – almost without a doubt – June, July and August will follow. This is the time when most of the country will take vacations, spend time with their families, travel. But that’s only going to happen if you clear security at the airport. As folks in Chicago learned this weekend, that’s no longer easy.
You can run a marathon faster than the time it takes to wait in a security line, especially if you have a bottle of water in your bag!
What did we do with the hundreds of billions of dollars? Why are we still using equipment twenty years old? We couldn’t develop anything more efficient? The amazing tech companies we have – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft – couldn’t come up with a more sophisticated system to vet people and their belongings? I bet you there’s an app that could do it in seconds.
Unless I’m mistaken, airports should have a pretty good idea of the number of people they expect to enter their buildings every hour, if not every every five minutes. How, in this digital age, are they still so consistently unprepared?
We need a contest. We like contests. Netflix offered a million bucks to anyone who developed an algorithm for them to analyze their data more efficiently. We need the TSA to offer a 10 million dollar prize for concepts to move these lines faster. Honestly, as you’re reading this, I’m sure YOU have a dozen ideas to make the process better!
Why? Because these lines caused by the TSA have led to hundreds of delayed flights and thousands of people missing flights.
The TSA higher-ups blame tightened security procedures and staff budget cuts. TSA employee blame the TSA, ranking the agency as one of the worst places in government to work. Elected officials blame “management problems”. This is a nice way of saying “incompetence”. It has gotten so bad that the Port Authority and other airport owners are thinking of hiring private security.
This is nuts. And the airlines have effectively had enough. CNN is now reporting that American Airlines is spending millions of their own money to help clear up security lines:
“In a letter sent to employees Wednesday, American’s Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom said the lines “evoke frustration from all of us.”
Our frustration is as deep as yours, Mr. Isom.
Art Gurwitz
Founder, Areena
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