If you are traveling from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport to another destination, you might want to get to the airport early. Like REALLY early. And take it seriously from some who visits the Hartsfield-Jackson airport a lot and has family that does the same. The lines at the Atlanta airport are always bad but never this bad. In fact, Atlanta's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) put out a warning that passengers should arrive at least three hours before their usual time to account for how bad the lines are. Even if you are a regular at the airport and understand how busy it is, you should heed this warning.
Still don't believe me? Here's some video evidence, courtesy of Reddit.
Keep in mind that the video is sped up a whole lot in order to condense it. But seriously, even for a Monday morning at the busiest airport in the world, that line is a little unacceptable to me.
So why are security lines so long? Of course, you have nothing and no one else to thank but the government shutdown.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is a government-based organization that regulates all major public transportation inside the United States, hence the name. And as a result of the government shutdown, their funding, like for many other important government organizations, has been cut off until Congress can reach a budgeting agreement. And given that this government shutdown is already the longest in history and shows no signs up letting up, you should be worried. I seriously believe that our representatives, senators and the president need to get their stuff together because this government shutdown is causing serious issues like this one.
So why does this shutdown cause long lines? Well, without funding, TSA cannot pay its workers. And unless workers decide to help out the airport, without pay, dealing with thousands of passengers a day, it will take a lot of time to run security. People should be glad that some workers even showed up to their jobs to help out.
If you are still curious about TSA and the government shutdown, here is a link to the TSA website, which shows more information on how the government shutdown affects them.
I only have two pieces of advice for people flying through Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport: arrive very early, and try and get TSA Pre-Check to save some time.
