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Gene Kennedy reporting Just as holiday travelers line up at airports around the country, they're finding there could be longer delays. There's a shortage of TSA screeners.
Flyers here won't likely notice much of a difference. The word from TSA here in Salt Lake is that they only need 15 additional screeners and they have hired for those positions. In fact, many of those people are training.
Also many of the screeners we've seen working today will be putting in overtime to make up for the shortfall over the busy weekend.
But for those traveling to bigger airports, like Washington's Dulles Airport, there could be noticeable delays. TSA is struggling to retain people and all this is catching up at time when the travel season is picking up.
Mike Dempsey, Traveler: "It doesn't seem like it makes a whole lot of sense that they wouldn't have enough people staffed knowing that the summer season is going to be a bit more seasonal in nature and that you're going to have a lot more traffic."
Here in Salt Lake City, TSA loses, on average, two employees every three weeks. And according to federal managers, that's actually much less than the national average.
TSA officials here say they saw the shortage coming last summer and have been aggressively working on hiring more people and speeding up the hiring process. In fact, their new push is to attract more part-timers.
Still, officials say with this busy travel weekend, make sure you allow extra time for longer lines. Another suggestion: Print up your boarding pass on your computer. That's especially a good idea for those flying in peak times of the morning or on Sunday, Monday, or Fridays.
