Travelers report increased frustration at airports nationwide — including Sea-Tac

Overcrowding is plaguing airports throughout the nation — and earlier this week, Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport was a major instance.

Driving the information: Photographs circulated on social media on Sunday of safety strains at Sea-Tac stretching into the airport parking storage, adopted by extra photographs of lengthy strains on Monday.

• A spokesperson mentioned airport officers recorded a most safety checkpoint wait time of 90 minutes on Sunday — however acknowledged some vacationers might need waited longer, because the airport would not have a foolproof system for monitoring queues that lengthy.

The massive image: Individuals are reporting elevated frustration at airports nationwide, Axios’ Joann Muller writes.

• J.D. Energy’s newest Airport Satisfaction Examine discovered general buyer satisfaction with North American airports fell 25 factors this yr — for a rating of 777 out of 1,000 — as passenger quantity rebounded from a stoop seen earlier within the pandemic.

Zoom in: The research, launched Wednesday, discovered that in comparison with equally sized airports, Sea-Tac ranked beneath common when it got here to buyer satisfaction.

• The research checked out six elements: Terminal amenities; airport arrival/departure; safety verify; check-in/baggage verify; baggage declare; and meals, beverage and retail.

What they’re saying: Perry Cooper, the Sea-Tac spokesperson, mentioned the latest lengthy wait occasions at Sea-Tac had been extremely uncommon.

• Usually, the airport sees a 15% drop in passenger visitors after Labor Day, which hasn’t occurred this yr — and staffing has didn’t sustain, airport officers mentioned.
• Upkeep and development additionally closed some lanes at safety checkpoints final weekend, whereas an unrelated airline software program outage precipitated delays on Monday, officers mentioned.

What’s subsequent: The airport and the Transportation Safety Administration are rising staffing this week to assist stop backups, per a information launch.

• The airport can also be planning a brand new terminal to handle rising passenger volumes. That undertaking is within the overview stage, Cooper mentioned.

The underside line: For now, passengers ought to count on frustrations at airports to proceed into 2023, Michael Taylor, journey intelligence lead at J.D. Energy, mentioned in a information launch.

• He added: “It’s clear that elevated capability in airports cannot come quickly sufficient.”