After security lines that reached near three hours on Sunday, security lines at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were back to normal on Monday, according to spokespeople with the Port of Seattle and TSA.
At about 10:24 a.m., wait times for general screening were hovering between 20 to 60 minutes, but were dropping, according to the Port of Seattle.
On Sunday afternoon, the security checkpoint line stretched into the parking garage, double-backing several times.
Some travelers said the wait was two-and-a-half hours.
Security line wraps out the building into parking lot at least 2+hrs to get they security pic.twitter.com/I6mLN5PbBX
— Amanda Rowley (@AmandaRowley513) September 18, 2022
At SeaTac. We arrived 2 hrs early for our flight, and we are in the PARKING LOT waiting to get through TSA. There’s no way we make it.@AskTSA What are you going to do to make it right to everyone who’s going to miss their flight because of this? pic.twitter.com/lChOgpJmP0
— Carolyn A. Drake (@Carolyn_A_Drake) September 18, 2022
Several travelers reported missing their flights, even after arriving at the airport over two hours early.
According to a TSA spokesperson, all security lines were merged into a single queue, and once travelers reached the terminal, they were redirected to individual checkpoints.
The spokesperson said 24 of 29 screening lanes were open, and the two that are closed were due to equipment malfunction. The other three are part of the international arrivals.
Airport officials said lines stretched into the parking garage from about 8:15 a.m. to noon, driven by the highest volume of passengers the airport had seen since the pandemic.
The TSA spokesperson noted it is cruise ship season, and travelers arriving from cruise ships are arriving at the same time.
Matt Hagwood was one of many people in line. He says he even got to the airport two and a half hours early and wasn’t expecting such a long wait.
“It is just … unfathomable, the amount of people that they were filing through there,” Hagwood said.
“So, it wouldn’t surprise me if people were waiting over four hours just to get to the checkpoint,” Hagwood said.
He says he waited more than three hours in line, which caused him to miss his flight, as well as lose money from the trip that never happened.
“They had to have known that everyone was going to be there because of all the flights that were scheduled. Everyone around me missed their flight,” Hagwood said.
Airport officials say the longest wait time they recorded during a hectic day was 90 minutes long.
KIRO 7 spoke with several others who were in the line and missed their flights. A man says people were offered money and other plans if they were to switch flights.
Hagwood hopes to never wait in line like that again.
“No one was given any warning that two hours wasn’t sufficient,” Hagwood said.
Travelers heading to the airport today can find real-time checkpoint wait times on the flySEA app.
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