TSA Anticipates Record-Breaking Summer Travel

TSA is expecting to screen around 264 million summer travelers, a historic amount for the agency. Summer is the busiest time of year for air travel, with the season officially running between the Thursday before Memorial Day to the Tuesday after Labor Day. If summer air travel shakes out as TSA predicts, they will see about a four percent increase over the last summer season.

As summer travel rises, TSA staff will be falling. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan confirmed to the Senate at a budget meeting Thursday that some TSA personnel, who work under the Customs and Border Patrol Agency, will be reassigned to the U.S.-Mexico border. While McAleenan assured the Senators that security would not be compromised by this reallocation of personnel, people traveling this summer season can expect longer wait times at security as more people travel and less personnel are available at security checkpoints.