American Airlines to spend $4M on private security-checkpoint workers
American Airlines said Thursday that it would spend $4 million to hire private contractors to help manage security lines at its nine hub airports, including Philadelphia International Airport, during the peak summer travel months.
American Airlines said Thursday that it would spend $4 million to hire private contractors to help manage security lines at its nine hub airports, including Philadelphia International Airport, during the peak summer travel months.
The airline's chief operating officer, Robert Isom, said in a letter to employees that "tens of thousands" of American's customers have missed flights and "tens of thousands of checked bags have been delayed" in Transportation Security Administration bag-check rooms because of low staffing.
"This is unacceptable to all of us, and the federal government can, and should, do better," he said.
American operates 70 percent of the flights at Philadelphia International.
Last week, Congress agreed to shift $34 million to the TSA to hire 768 more screeners, giving the agency 42,525 total, and to pay overtime to existing employees.
"It's a decent start, but it isn't enough," Isom said. "The only viable way to fix these long lines is for TSA to increase their staffing at checkpoints."
In Philadelphia, employees of two airline subcontractors, McGinn Security and PrimeFlight Aviation, have been trained by the TSA and will be working under TSA guidance to assist with "nonessential security functions" such as distributing and retrieving bins and keeping passengers moving through screening lines, said American spokeswoman Victoria Lupica.
McGinn has hired 15 to 20 new employees. PrimeFlight will use existing employees and allocate them as needed to help in TSA screening areas. PrimeFlight may add employees, if needed, as the summer progresses. The increased staffing begins Memorial Day weekend, Lupica said.
About 231 million passengers will fly on U.S. airlines this summer, up 4 percent from last summer, the industry trade group Airlines for America said Wednesday.
More than 2.5 million people will travel each day from June 1 through Aug. 31.
That means 95,000 more travelers each day on average, the group said.
Security wait times have stretched to 60 to 90 minutes or worse at some airports this spring, including Chicago O'Hare and Newark Liberty, because of the increase in travelers, fewer screening officers, and tighter security measures after terror attacks in Paris, Brussels, and the downing of a chartered airliner over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in October.
Airlines for America has created a website, ihatethewait.com, and is encouraging fliers to use the hashtag #ihatethewait to post photos of long lines, in the hope of pushing officials to solve the problem.
U.S. airlines also are encouraging vetted customers to enroll, for an $85 fee, in a prescreening program called TSA Pre-Check. Passengers in the program can usually get through security screening more quickly because they do not have to take off their shoes or remove laptops and liquids from carry-on bags.
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