DULLES, Va. — As the busy holiday travel season approaches, a few tips and tricks can help you get through those long airport security lines, as long as the person in front of you does the same.
It can be frustrating to take off your belt and shoes, but most airline passengers are so used to the Transportation Security Administration’s rules they’ve forgotten why they can’t pack certain carry-on items, such as bottles containing more than 3.4 ounces of liquid.
Liquid explosives can be harder to detect than metal, said Lisa Farbstein, with the TSA.
Compared with the first five months of 2015, 57 million more people got on board a plane this year, according to TSA numbers.
But passengers going through the three airports around Washington have not encountered as much trouble getting through security lines as at many airports nationwide.
That’s because of how the area’s airports are configured, Farbstein said.
“Some lend themselves better to installing checkpoints and can accommodate lots of lanes,” she said.
Travelers’ reports of missing flights due to long security lines can also be attributed to staff attrition, which Dulles International Airport has not experienced, Farbstein said.
Long lines and frustrated passengers have the agency reinforcing travel restrictions to make things go quicker when you arrive to check in.
“The number one tip if you really want to save time is TSA PreCheck,” she said.
About a year ago, the TSA saw an average of 3,500 PreCheck enrollment applications a day; in recent weeks, they’ve seen an average of 16,000 a day, Farbstein said.
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