SEATTLE – One day after new security rules caused record-breaking lines at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, things were back to normal Friday, airport officials said.
The longest wait in a security line all day was about 45 minutes at one checkpoint at the beginning of the day, said airport spokesman Bob Parker.
He blamed that delay on passengers who were so concerned about Thursday’s delays that they arrived at the airport before ticket counters were even open. When the counters opened, people checked their luggage and rushed to the security line, causing a temporary bottleneck there.
“The line did back up onto the sky bridge and then it just quickly evaporated,” Parker said.
For the rest of the day, crowds were minimal.
“It’s a completely different world here today,” he said.
Parker said it took airline passengers and security screeners about a day to get used to the federal government’s new regulations prohibiting any liquids or gels from carry-on bags. He said passengers were surprised by the notice Thursday morning, and Transportation Security Administration screeners needed a little time to get used to new procedures.
“You don’t have to change much at the checkpoint. … If something you do slows people down by 15 seconds, if you multiply that 50,000 times, you have people out into the garage,” Parker said, referring to Thursday’s lines, which airport officials said kept people waiting an average of 90 minutes.
Parker said the new rules will remain in place until the federal government says otherwise, so airline passengers should continue to give themselves two hours to get through airport lines when they are traveling within the country and three hours for international travel.
“But they don’t have to do anything more than that,” Parker said. “Today, two hours was more than enough.”
August is Sea-Tac’s busiest month of the year. On Thursday, about 51,000 people were trying to catch outgoing flights and about 3,700 missed their flights, while 164 flights were delayed, Parker said.
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