Travel success at BWI Marshall Airport now comes with a preflight arrival time of three hours this weekend.
The three-hour allotment was suggested by the airport in a new update on Sunday, a day after the major travel hub urged travelers to bookmark four hours in order to account for serious delays at security checkpoints.
“Checkpoint wait times have improved greatly, but remain longer than normal,” reads a notice. “Travelers departing from Concourses A, B and C are advised to arrive 3 hours before scheduled departure.”
Airport and airline staff are on hand to aid travelers in navigating the process.
Keep up to date on airport conditions at BWI Marshall by following the airport’s social media pages.
New batch of ICE agents head to BWI Marshall
The latest comes as nationwide airports, including the DC region’s BWI Marshall, Dulles International and Regan National airports, experiences serious delays prompted by Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages.
It also follows an announcement by the Maryland Aviation Administration detailing that additional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were being deployed starting Saturday afternoon.
“MAA was advised by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that ICE personnel will be working to assist TSA security checkpoints at BWI Marshall, similar to their roles during recent deployments at airports across the country,” reads a release.
“Primary aviation security functions, including passenger and baggage screening responsibilities, will remain with trained, skilled TSA personnel. The ICE personnel will provide operational support for TSA to speed up the clearance process for passengers.”
“MAA has been informed by TSA that ICE’s primary focus is security operations, not immigration enforcement, during their deployment to BWI Marshall Airport,” the notice adds.
For weeks, TSA agents have worked without pay during the partial government shutdown, with many staffers opting to stop going into work. These same workers previously endured the nation’s longest government shutdown last fall.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order to pay TSA employees, a move that came after he’d earlier deployed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help ease airport checkpoints delays.
“America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,” Trump said in the memo authorizing the payments, according to the AP. “I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said TSA workers “should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday.”
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