Spring break could cause long TSA lines at Charlotte’s airport. Here’s how to beat them
If you’re planning on catching a flight out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) this weekend, you may want to carefully plan your TSA strategy ahead of time. In a travel advisory posted to the airport’s Twitter account Thursday, CLT warned passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours ahead of their scheduled departure.
Aside from arriving early and adopting a TSA-friendly wardrobe (such as easily removable shoes and clothing that doesn’t require a belt) there are ways you can speed up the TSA process.
Downloading the myTSA app allows passengers to measure how congested TSA could be ahead of their arrival. In the app, users can get real-time information about any given airport including wait times, FAA delays, and whether TSA PreCheck is open or closed.
The CLT Airport app shares the same information, but with more Charlotte-specific details. In the CLT Airport app, passengers can get live updates from Charlotte Douglas International Airport on which security checkpoints are open, which ones are closed, and their respective estimated wait times.
Although wait times and “peak hours” can vary based on the day, passengers most likely to be affected by TSA congestion are those departing on morning and afternoon flights.
According to Mark Howell, a TSA regional spokesperson, passengers on early morning flights run the risk of arriving at a checkpoint that’s understaffed.
“With those early (flights) you’re going to run into an issue where the checkpoint is not open,” Howell told the Observer. “If you show up three hours ahead and you have a 5 a.m. flight, you’re going to get there at a time, probably, where we are at minimal staffing or maybe there’s just one lane open for crew.”
Despite the fact that early mornings are considered to be “quiet hours” by Howell, delays and cancellations from the previous evening could have an impact on how busy TSA is the following morning. In those cases, which Howell categorized as “anomalies,” how staffed TSA checkpoints are depends on proper communication from airlines.
“If there’s something that changes then we have to know from the airlines, obviously, so that we can get the staff in to do it,” Howell said. “It’s the same at the end of the day. We have our hours of operation for flights that go out but we can’t not staff the checkpoint – if there’s flights that come in late then someone has to wait and shut the checkpoint down at the end of the day.”
Ahead of spring break, passengers should expect Charlotte Douglas International Airport to be busier than usual and are encouraged to plan accordingly in order to avoid missing flights. As a recap:
1. Download myTSA or CLT Airport to keep an eye on TSA wait times.
2. Speed up your TSA process by adopting a TSA-friendly wardrobe (easily removable shoes, clothing that doesn’t require a belt, minimal or no jewelry, etc.).
3. Keep in mind that early morning flights could mean a minimally staffed TSA checkpoint.
