Long lines, unpaid TSA workers: Experts say US air travel system in crisis

TSA workers face unpaid wages, causing long lines and staffing shortages at key US airports during shutdown chaos.

For more than a month, employees of the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), tasked with screening the millions of people who pass through airports across the United States each day, have not been paid.

The result can be seen in videos that have spread across social media, showing frustrated travellers waiting in long lines at some of the country’s busiest airports, where hundreds of TSA employees have quit or declined to show up for work.

Hours-long delays have snarled airports, and morale among agency employees has suffered amid the lack of pay, the result of a partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the TSA.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has deployed federal agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to airports across the country to fill gaps. That step that has drawn criticism given their lack of relevant training and a record of aggressive methods.

The delays also come at a time when the US-Israel war on Iran has resulted in additional complications when it comes to international travel, from cancelled or rerouted flights to heightened energy prices and concerns over security.