This Summer’s Mantra: Hurry Up and Wait

LISLE (Summer 2006) When do the highest number of Americans choose to travel? If you said “the holidays,” then you’re right! But the second most-traveled time is, of course, summer. In fact, recent studies suggest that this summer will be the busiest on record for air travel with nearly 207 million passengers expected to board flights within these next three months (up from 205 million for this same period last year). As we hit the highways and byways of land and sky this season, we also hit the inevitable traffic. The traffic this summer will be in our nation’s terminals where it appears there are not enough security check-point personnel to move us along our merry way. Couple this with all the regular problems of late with the airlines (fewer airline employees, packed planes, etc.), and you’re talking major traffic jam.

Now don’t get us wrong. We wholeheartedly support the efforts to make airline travel safer. We do wonder, however, why the TSA chose to increase the number of employees in such small airports as the Kahului Airport in Maui, Hawaii, while the larger airports like Atlanta and Newark, NJ suffer from delays due to a drop in personnel. Below is a listing of the average wait times in the top 10 busiest airports (based upon departures per day).  However, there is good news: The TSA’s goal is to get you through security in less than 10 minutes, and during non-rush times, they accomplish this goal an average of 92% of the time. However, during the busiest times, this goal was only met 83% of the time, except for Mondays at 6:30 AM (the busiest time for business travelers) when that goal was hit only 74% of the time. But like anything, these things vary day to day, so it’s always best to plan for a delay and be pleasantly surprised.

Airport Name Traffic Rank % waits over 10 minutes* Max Wait (in mins.)
       
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) 1 9.3 64
Las Vegas (LAS) 2 20.4 54
Chicago – O’Hare (ORD) 3 7.1 63
Atlanta, GA (ATL) 4 17.1 70
Orlando, FL (MCO) 5 16.1 57
Phoenix, AZ (PHX) 6 4.6 51
New York – LaGuardia (LGA) 7 7.6 99
Dallas Ft. Worth (DFW) 8 7.3 44
Denver, CO (DEN) 9 6.5 38
Boston, MA (BOS) 10 2.0 69
 
(* percentage of wait time that exceeded 10 minutes between 5AM – 8PM local time)
Based on time period of May 1, 2005 through April 30, 2006. Source: USAToday

So, let’s put this in perspective. If you have a flight out of Chicago O’Hare, you have a 92.9% chance of getting through security in under 10 minutes (unless it’s Monday morning, when all bets are off). However, you have about a 7.1% chance that you’ll have to wait in the security line for up to 63 minutes. Thus proving the point that you have to expect the unexpected when traveling this summer and plan to arrive at the airport no less than an hour and a half before your scheduled departure time, two hours to be on the safe side. Better to be sipping a Starbucks while reading the latest issue of Time Magazine than to be sweating it out with one eye on the clock.

Summer Hours
Speaking of summer, here’s where we announce our summer hours! 24/7. That means we’re available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days of week. Don’t ever hesitate to call us from the security line if you’re worried you may miss your flight. That’s why we’re here – we’ll check to see if your current flight is scheduled to depart on time and we’ll be here to reschedule you as necessary. 24/7. Including holidays.

 

Researched and produced by Ticket Express Travel.  All rights reserved.  Intended for the reference use of our corporate travel clients only.
Not to be reproduced or distributed without express written approval.

 


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