Atlanta airport suffers delays

Air travelers endured waits of more than an hour to get through domestic checkpoints at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta amid the partial federal shutdown Monday morning, Jan. 14, 2019. No-shows among screeners across the nation soared Sunday and again Monday, the first business day after TSA agents missed paychecks for the first time due to the partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Air travelers endured waits of more than an hour to get through domestic checkpoints at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta amid the partial federal shutdown Monday morning, Jan. 14, 2019. No-shows among screeners across the nation soared Sunday and again Monday, the first business day after TSA agents missed paychecks for the first time due to the partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

ATLANTA -- Air travelers endured waits of more than an hour to get through domestic checkpoints at the Atlanta airport on Monday, the first business day after security screeners missed paychecks for the first time due to the partial government shutdown.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest, reported the long lines on its website Monday morning, showing the hour-plus waits at all three checkpoints in the domestic terminal.

"It's chaos out here," passenger Vincent Smith said as he stood in a line that snaked through the Atlanta airport's atrium and baggage claim areas. "This line, I've been here about 15 minutes and it has moved 2 feet."

No-shows among screeners across the nation soared Sunday and again Monday, when the Transportation Security Administration reported a national absence rate of 7.6 percent, compared with 3.2 percent on the comparable Monday a year ago.

The agency is working with the Atlanta airport and airlines "to maximize all available operational resources at the airport," spokesman Jim Gregory said.

The agency is working with airports and airlines nationwide to consolidate operations and get the most out of resources, Gregory added. He declined to provide absentee figures for Atlanta or other airports, saying that would compromise security by exposing possible vulnerabilities.

Miami International Airport closed one of its concourses for part of Saturday and Sunday, shifting about a dozen afternoon and evening flights each day to other concourses so that security workers could adequately staff the other checkpoints.

Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport closed the security checkpoint and ticket counters in one terminal Sunday afternoon. They remained shuttered Monday morning, according to an airport spokesman.

Information for this article was contributed by Sarah Blake Morgan of The Associated Press.

Business on 01/15/2019

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