Airport employees have anticipated long security wait times at airports due to the surge of summer travel and "inadequate" staffing, including Hartsfiled-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's General Manager, Miguel Southwell, who sent a letter to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in February threatening to abandon their service all together in favor of a privatized passenger screening.
But, even still, airports across the country are experiencing longer wait times.
About 450 American Airlines passengers were stranded at O'Hare International Airport on May 15 due to a two to three hour security wait time.
The airline rolled out cots for their passengers to sleep on that Sunday.
An American Airlines spokesperson, Leslie Scott, said they will be deploying their own employees to help TSA workers with non-security functions like telling people to take shoes off and electronics out while they wait for the promise of the 800 new TSA employees set to arrive next month.
Scott told the Chicago Tribune that 1,000 American Airlines missed their flights at O'Hare due to "excessive" TSA lines in March.
"TSA is our No. 1 problem right now, and it's only going to get worse," Scott told the Tribune.
The TSA is pushing their PreCheck program in the meantime, which allows eligible travelers to apply for expedited screening at select airports without having to remove shoes, belts, outerwear and laptop bags.
But, even the line to receive approval for PreCheck on May 15 was hours long, according to an ABC report.
Another TSA line at Chicago Midway International prompted a passenger to take a video of a TSA line that wound around several corners. The video racked up more than 2.1 million views.
