Some information from TSA about summer travel.
“Each day, our officers screen hundreds of thousands of airline travelers ensuring they arrive at their destinations safely. We expect to screen a higher number of travelers regularly by the summer months and will need additional officers to support our critical mission”, said Melanie Harvey, acting Executive Assistant Administrator for TSA’s Security Operations.
In addition to an increased number of passengers, the TSA will have to spend time enforcing the new federal transportation mask requirement. TSA agents can issue fines starting at $250 for non-compliant passengers and going up to $1,500 for repeat offenders.
Based on regular seasonal travel trends plus predicted COVID-19 vaccination availability for the general public, the TSA is looking to hire over 6,000 Transportation Security Officer (TSO) positions to meet passenger demand by this summer.
Does this mean airports will be full again? Probably not. Numbers will be up but probably not back to 2019 numbers until late 2022 or early 2023.
What are your plans?