5 ms·

I dislike waiting in line (obviously), but I really hate that the wait times are wildly unpredictable. Sometimes it's five minutes, sometimes it's an hour, and

I dislike waiting in line (obviously), but I really hate that the wait times are wildly unpredictable. Sometimes it's five minutes, sometimes it's an hour, and the only way to be sure is to arrive at the airport far ahead of time. This has always struck me as weird since they know almost exactly how many people will be passing through a checkpoint at any given time: the vast majority of tickets are bought >1 week in advance and I'm pretty sure airlines share passenger data with the TSA already. Given this, they should be able to adjust the staffing accordingly to make the wait times incredibly predictable--at least when I fly, all of the lines are rarely open. Heck, you could even make things slightly better by texting passengers a "security forecast" the night before: "Screening lines are expected to be {short,typical,long} tomorrow. Please arrive {1 hr, 90 min, 2+hr} before your flight.

newman314 10y ago
Think about what you just proposed. A "security forecast" would completely defeat the purpose of the security line in the first place. Who would "attack" if it's a high security day?
- aianus 10y ago
  You misunderstood him. He meant 'low wait time', 'medium wait time', 'high wait time'. Everyone would still be going through the same screening process as usual.
  - mattkrause 10y ago
    Thanks--I thought that was pretty clear, but I guess not....
    - newman314 10y ago
      My bad. Misinterpreted the "security forecast".
ortusdux 10y ago
Wait time reporting is a mess right now. Some airports have wait time systems: http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Passenger/waittimes/ http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Passenger/waittimes/ The TSA has a mobile ready site with wait times for some airports: https://apps.tsa.dhs.gov/mytsa/status_home.aspx https://apps.tsa.dhs.gov/mytsa/status_home.aspx Some private companies are in the market. Not sure where the data comes from: http://www.whatsbusy.com/airport http://www.whatsbusy.com/airport I like Blip, who has an implemented an elegant solution in JFK: https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/24/this-technology-monitors-our-cellphones-to-calculate-wait-times-at-airports/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/24/this-technology-monitors-o... The problem is that there is not all that much money in reporting wait times. Right now the wait times are impacting passenger's experience to the point that I think the airlines might foot the bill to cover a Blip like system and fold it into their apps.
jbob2000 10y ago
"Given this, they should be able to adjust the staffing accordingly...". That right there is the hardest problem to solve. People are fickle, especially ones who work as security guards (or TSA agents, very similar duties). It's a low paying job that is boring as fuck. It's very difficult to find people willing to sit in a chair or stand in uniform for 8-12 hours a day. Not only that, but there is no incentive to do good work as a security guard; you might get lucky and get promoted to supervisor? Maybe? There aren't a lot of positions in security beyond the uniform. So they can't just "adjust the staffing". Where are these staff going to come from, thin air? If a staff member already worked 40 hours this week, I can't ask him to do another shift, lest I pay overtime and blow the budget. If two of my employees call in sick, I can't just call up my night shift employees to fill the shift, otherwise they won't be able to work the night shift. And I need to give my staff stable hours - I can't ask someone to work a night shift, then 2 days later, work the morning shift, then the afternoon, etc. And to top it all off, I need to give my employees their work schedule a week in advance (at least) so they can plan their lives around it. TL;DR, staffing is hard

newman314 10y ago

Think about what you just proposed. A "security forecast" would completely defeat the purpose of the security line in the first place. Who would "attack" if it's a high security day?

aianus 10y ago
You misunderstood him. He meant 'low wait time', 'medium wait time', 'high wait time'. Everyone would still be going through the same screening process as usual.
- mattkrause 10y ago
  Thanks--I thought that was pretty clear, but I guess not....
  - newman314 10y ago
    My bad. Misinterpreted the "security forecast".

ortusdux 10y ago

Wait time reporting is a mess right now. Some airports have wait time systems: http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Passenger/waittimes/ http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Passenger/waittimes/ The TSA has a mobile ready site with wait times for some airports: https://apps.tsa.dhs.gov/mytsa/status_home.aspx https://apps.tsa.dhs.gov/mytsa/status_home.aspx Some private companies are in the market. Not sure where the data comes from: http://www.whatsbusy.com/airport http://www.whatsbusy.com/airport I like Blip, who has an implemented an elegant solution in JFK: https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/24/this-technology-monitors-our-cellphones-to-calculate-wait-times-at-airports/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/24/this-technology-monitors-o... The problem is that there is not all that much money in reporting wait times. Right now the wait times are impacting passenger's experience to the point that I think the airlines might foot the bill to cover a Blip like system and fold it into their apps.

jbob2000 10y ago

"Given this, they should be able to adjust the staffing accordingly...". That right there is the hardest problem to solve. People are fickle, especially ones who work as security guards (or TSA agents, very similar duties). It's a low paying job that is boring as fuck. It's very difficult to find people willing to sit in a chair or stand in uniform for 8-12 hours a day. Not only that, but there is no incentive to do good work as a security guard; you might get lucky and get promoted to supervisor? Maybe? There aren't a lot of positions in security beyond the uniform. So they can't just "adjust the staffing". Where are these staff going to come from, thin air? If a staff member already worked 40 hours this week, I can't ask him to do another shift, lest I pay overtime and blow the budget. If two of my employees call in sick, I can't just call up my night shift employees to fill the shift, otherwise they won't be able to work the night shift. And I need to give my staff stable hours - I can't ask someone to work a night shift, then 2 days later, work the morning shift, then the afternoon, etc. And to top it all off, I need to give my employees their work schedule a week in advance (at least) so they can plan their lives around it. TL;DR, staffing is hard