Finally Hartsfield GM Stands up to the Ghetto TSA's Workers shape up or be replaced. (Atlanta: move, rated)

[0nyxStation]

ohhhh....

[AnsleyPark]

I have always found the TSA folks to be very pleasant. They have a tough job dealing with thousands of passengers every day, a large number of which are likely in a hurry, aggravated to the point of rudeness and unappreciative.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by testa50

Use of ghetto in the thread title is 100% inappropriate.

But the mismanagement of the TSA at the Atlanta Airport is completely atrocious. As I went through security at 5:15 this morning I saw the general lane was massive, filling the entire maze area and ending near the atrium. There was one security lane open with a line hundreds of people long. It is like this every morning.

That is inexcusable. Many people flying that early are business people that cannot be late. TSA needs to get their **** together or be fired.

I have TSA Precheck so it doesn't particularly affect me, but it's agonizing seeing these lines every single time I take the early flight. Passengers are visibly agitated as they weren't planning on a 30-45 minute (easily) security wait at 5AM. But with all of these new really early Southwest flights the number of passangers flying out at that time has increased dramatically, and the TSA hasn't done a thing to adjust after months and months and months, and presumably thousands of missed flights. (Notably, TSA Precheck had two lanes open, despite handling a tiny fraction of the general boarding passengers.)

It's not a "pax should get there earlier" sort of problem; TSA is literally not providing enough capacity at the checkpoint to handle all of the passengers flying out in the 5:00-6:30 timeframe, regardless of what time they arrive. It's point blank incompetence on the part of the TSA.

By the way, the actual workers themselves in Atlanta generally seem courteous and professional for TSA agents, or at least comparable to other airports. The problem, in my opinion, is completely on the TSA 'management', such as it exists. They are utterly incompetent and should be fired at once.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

I have always found the TSA folks to be very pleasant. They have a tough job dealing with thousands of passengers every day, a large number of which are likely in a hurry, aggravated to the point of rudeness and unappreciative.

Agreed, it is not the workers themselves. It is some out-of-touch managers higher up the chain causing this problem.

[JPD]

The last time I flew out of Atlanta, the TSA folks told me and my wife to go off to the left into the wheelchair area. Neither of us are in wheelchairs, but we figured maybe it'd be quicker, so we did as we were told. That turned out to be a huge waste of time. There were very few people in the wheelchair line, but every time someone in a wheelchair showed up (which was very frequent) everyone else had to let them through first. Them and the rest of their group, which turned out to be 5+ people in every case, which meant by the time they all got through the checkpoint another wheelchair group had arrived in line. We stood there for quite a long time, constantly getting held up by wheelchair bound folks, watching as people who were behind us but were sent to the regular lines cleared security and went on their way. TSA had us trapped, and they knew there was nothing we could do about it.

Don't try to do me any favors, TSA.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Agreed, it is not the workers themselves. It is some out-of-touch managers higher up the chain causing this problem.

Called congress who will not approve funding.

[flyonpa]

Originally Posted by bellhead

Called congress who will not approve funding.

Interesting while TSA budget is Approved by congress, the Cost of it is payed by passenger of $5.60 - 11.20 R/T


The airline provide TSA with there passenger forecast by hour, 30 days in advance so the fact that thousands are showing up at 5am for 6am flight is not a "Surprise" Its just inept management by the TSA Manages. Since its the "Government" running there is very little the Airline or Airport authority can do about it.

Put in back under private contractors with TSA rules of the road, with SLA on the contracts. ie: The line should be no longer then 10mins 90% of the time, and no more then 20min 10% of the time. Penalty for non compliance is $1000 per minute the line is over 10/20 mins.


Keep in mind 9/11 everything that went thru security was allowed on the plane. No One got it "past" security.

[dblackga]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

Keep in mind 9/11 everything that went thru security was allowed on the plane. No One got it "past" security.

But it didn't go through TSA, which wasn't created until November 2001, in response to 9/11. Prior to that, it was private security at each airport . . . so, yeah . . .

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

Interesting while TSA budget is Approved by congress, the Cost of it is payed by passenger of $5.60 - 11.20 R/T


The airline provide TSA with there passenger forecast by hour, 30 days in advance so the fact that thousands are showing up at 5am for 6am flight is not a "Surprise" Its just inept management by the TSA Manages. Since its the "Government" running there is very little the Airline or Airport authority can do about it.

Put in back under private contractors with TSA rules of the road, with SLA on the contracts. ie: The line should be no longer then 10mins 90% of the time, and no more then 20min 10% of the time. Penalty for non compliance is $1000 per minute the line is over 10/20 mins.


Keep in mind 9/11 everything that went thru security was allowed on the plane. No One got it "past" security.

You do know that certain federal agencies return money back to Congress each year who then spends the money on their on own projects.

Experts say travel fees should prevent airport cuts - CBS News

For the 2013 fiscal year, the Obama administration has proposed collecting $2.2 billion in passenger fees, an increase of $317 million. Of that, $117 million would be used to further offset the cost of aviation security operations and $200 million would contribute to federal deficit reduction.

[0nyxStation]

So we pretty much established that TSA is not ghetto, just mismanaged?