Travel success at BWI Marshall Airport now comes with a preflight arrival time of four hours.
A post issued by airport officials said that anyone traveling out of BWI Marshall on Saturday or Sunday needs to bake in extra time as authorities are seeing “significant delays” at its security checkpoints.
“Travelers most impacted are those departing from Concourses A, B and C,” reads the notice. “We have not previously experienced checkpoint wait times similar to what we are seeing this morning.”
Impacts are being felt at checkpoints D and E, but are being described as “less” severe.
Airport and airline staff are on hand to aid travelers in navigating the process.
Keep up to date on airport conditions at BWI Marshall by following the airport’s social media pages.
The latest comes as nationwide airports, including the DC region’s BWI Marshall, Dulles International and Regan National airports, experiences serious delays prompted by Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages.
For weeks, TSA agents have worked without pay during the partial government shutdown, with many staffers opting to stop going into work. These same workers previously endured the nation’s longest government shutdown last fall.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order to pay TSA employees, a move that came after he’d earlier deployed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help ease airport checkpoints delays.
“America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,” Trump said in the memo authorizing the payments, according to the AP. “I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said TSA workers “should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday.”
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4 hours early is the sweet spot if you’re flying out of BWI Marshall Airport
