MSP Airport Officials Urge Passengers To Arrive Earlier For Flights

March 26--Once, Twin Cities travelers were urged to arrive at the airport two hours before a flight. Not anymore.

Officials now urge passengers to arrive 2 1/2 hours before domestic flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, at least for the next month.

Fewer security personnel, along with more peak-time travelers and flights, have security-screening crunch time peaking beyond 45 minutes at the main terminal, said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

And the added security delay factors into everything else you have to do at the airport, such as parking and checking bags.

If you're flying from MSP's smaller Humphrey Terminal 2, or you're avoiding the early-morning or evening rush, passengers might still be OK arriving two hours early, Hogan said.

But generally, he said, "My advice is that you give yourself at least 2 1/2 hours, because there have been too many people who have missed their flights."

The new guideline at MSP caught some travel specialists by surprise.

"Each airport is different, and there are other airports around the country that are experiencing peaking," said Erik Hansen, a senior director at the U.S. Travel Association, which promotes U.S. travel and tourism. "But we're not aware of any that have modified the recommendation so that travelers show up 2 1/2 hours ahead of time."

Hogan cites three changes at MSP that have slowed security lines and frustrated passengers. First, more people are flying now, with MSP traffic up 6 percent from last year. This year's spring break season is especially busy.

Second, "the airlines have condensed a lot of flights into early in the morning because that's when people want to fly," Hogan said.

But the biggest reason, Hogan said, seems to be staffing changes at the federal Transportation Security Administration. Fewer security checkpoints are open now, and there are fewer TSA personnel working to screen passengers, especially at the MSP's Lindbergh Terminal 1.

"In Terminal 1, there are eight security checkpoints ... and there used to be six that were permanently open," Hogan said. "Now five are open at peak times, and it goes down to three at some times of the day."

Blame cuts in the federal budget. Airport officials also blame a TSA staffing formula that they believe works against airports configured like MSP, which has a series of smaller security checkpoints, rather than one or two huge checkpoints that can screen fliers more efficiently.

Either way, passengers aren't happy. On social media sites, MSP's long security lines are by far the No. 1 complaint from travelers.

"Maybe you should get more help," one passenger wrote on the airport's Facebook page. "2.5 hours for domestic is a waste of time. Open all the checkpoints, staff all the counters and move people through quickly."

Lorie Dankers, a Seattle-based spokeswoman for TSA, sees the issue differently. She cites TSA statistics for MSP suggesting that only three times in March have waiting times exceeded 30 minutes. The longest: 42 minutes, which occurred at 5 p.m. March 14, a Friday.

"Very few of the passengers who went through the checkpoint have waited more than 30 minutes," Dankers said. She did allow that "42 minutes is too long; I wouldn't want to wait in a 42-minute line," but she touted a new way to avoid such a delay.

Earlier this month, TSA opened a pair of local offices where frequent travelers can apply to be pre-screened. Passengers approved in the Pre-Check program can sometimes use an expedited security line and leave on their shoes, belts and light jackets, as well as keeping laptops in their cases.

"We've got a fabulous response," Dankers said of Pre-Check, with more than 100,000 passengers nationwide already enrolling in the program, including more than 2,500 in the Twin Cities.

To apply, travelers provide identification to the TSA and pay a five-year fee of $85. You can begin the enrollment process online, then visit the TSA Pre-Check office inside the MSP security gate on Concourse F, or the enrollment center in Roseville at 2780 Snelling Ave. N., Suite 301.

Hansen, the air travel advocate, cheers the Pre-Check program as "something that is benefitting the entire system by taking people out of the regular screening line, and that shortens the line for everyone else."

TSA's Dankers also noted that time spent in a security checkpoint is only "one of many things people experience when they go to the airport. Is 2 1/2 hours enough? It depends on how long everything else takes you. If you only had to go through security screening, you wouldn't have to come to the airport 2 1/2 hours early."

Longer term, MSP officials are looking at reconfiguring the security checkpoints so that they're wider and more efficient. But that will take time and money.

"None of us is happy with the wait times as they are now," Hogan, the airport spokesman, said. "We're trying to work together to ease this bottleneck that occurs, especially early in the morning.

"Ultimately, I think all the parties involved are going to need to make some changes," Hogan added. "(The Metropolitan Airports Commission) is going to expand the width of its checkpoints, TSA is going to need to increase its staff, and the airlines are going to spread out the number of flights."

But until then, MSP fliers, get ready to wait.

Tom Webb can be reached at 651-228-5428. Follow him at twitter.com/TomWebbMN.

Copyright 2014 - Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.