Overcrowding is plaguing airports throughout the nation — and earlier this week, Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport was a chief instance.
Driving the information: Images circulated on social media on Sunday of safety strains at Sea-Tac stretching into the airport parking storage, adopted by extra pictures of lengthy strains on Monday.
- A spokesperson stated airport officers recorded a most safety checkpoint wait time of 90 minutes on Sunday — however acknowledged some vacationers might need waited longer, because the airport would not have a foolproof system for monitoring queues that lengthy.
The massive image: Persons are reporting elevated frustration at airports nationwide, Axios’ Joann Muller writes.
- J.D. Energy’s newest Airport Satisfaction Examine discovered general buyer satisfaction with North American airports fell 25 factors this yr — for a rating of 777 out of 1,000 — as passenger quantity rebounded from a hunch seen earlier within the pandemic.
Zoom in: The examine, launched Wednesday, discovered that in comparison with equally sized airports, Sea-Tac ranked under common when it got here to buyer satisfaction.
- The examine checked out six components: Terminal amenities; airport arrival/departure; safety examine; check-in/baggage examine; baggage declare; and meals, beverage and retail.
What they’re saying: Perry Cooper, the Sea-Tac spokesperson, stated the latest lengthy wait occasions at Sea-Tac have been extremely uncommon.
- Usually, the airport sees a 15% drop in passenger visitors after Labor Day, which hasn’t occurred this yr — and staffing has did not sustain, airport officers stated.
- Upkeep and development additionally closed some lanes at safety checkpoints final weekend, whereas an unrelated airline software program outage brought about delays on Monday, officers stated.
What’s subsequent: The airport and the Transportation Safety Administration are growing staffing this week to assist stop backups, per a information launch.
- The airport can be planning a brand new terminal to handle rising passenger volumes. That undertaking is within the evaluate stage, Cooper stated.
The underside line: For now, passengers ought to count on frustrations at airports to proceed into 2023, Michael Taylor, journey intelligence lead at J.D. Energy, stated in a information launch.
- He added: “It’s clear that elevated capability in airports cannot come quickly sufficient.”
