Overview
- Houston’s William P. Hobby and New Orleans’ MSY reported some of the worst backups, with waits approaching or exceeding three hours and lines extending into parking garages.
- Airports urged travelers to arrive very early—three to five hours at the hardest-hit locations—as staff absences forced limited checkpoint capacity and intermittent PreCheck closures.
- TSA employees received only a partial paycheck on Feb. 28 and are days from a $0 paycheck, a strain officials say is fueling unscheduled absences and longer lines.
- TSA says PreCheck generally remains available but subject to case-by-case adjustments, while Global Entry remains suspended during the funding lapse.
- Airlines and industry groups warned of cascading delays with a projected 171 million passengers traveling March–April, and carriers like Southwest made temporary changes at Hobby to ease bottlenecks.