Kennedy, LaGuardia travelers advised to keep getting to airports extra early

Travelers using Kennedy, LaGuardia or other metropolitan airports this week are advised to keep arriving several hours early, even as TSA workers are poised to resume getting paid and security lines likely will begin to lessen as a result.

White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday he hoped the federal government could begin paying Transportation Security Administration workers again as soon as Monday. If, as expected, TSA staffing begins to increase, it will be just in time. Passover, Easter and schools letting out for spring break this week mean airports nationwide were already bracing for busy travel days.

For LaGuardia, officials also said Sunday they are waiting for safety investigators to deliver their findings about this month's crash on a runway between a landing Air Canada Express passenger jet and a fire truck before making any changes to operating procedures. The runway reopened Thursday. The crash killed the jet's pilot and co-pilot and injured several others.

Long lines at LaGuardia on Sunday morning had become shorter by noon. Groups of federal immigration agents, brought in to assist with security as unpaid TSA workers stopped showing up, could be seen walking around Terminal B.

Traveler Dasia Lewis arrived about five hours early for her flight home to Charlotte, North Carolina, after spending the weekend in New York City with a friend.

Sitting in the check-in area, Lewis said she still felt confident about flying despite the crash a week earlier. "I’m very faith-based," she said. "Condolences to all those affected."

Port Authority executive director Kathryn Garcia said Sunday no procedural changes have been made at LaGuardia since the crash.

"At this point we're going to wait for the [National Transportation Safety Board] to give us some guidance on what occurred and if there's anything that needs to be changed," Garcia said during an interview with CBS New York.

President Donald Trump had previously blamed Democrats for the TSA workers not being paid. He issued an executive order Friday demanding they be paid immediately.

About 50,000 TSA agents nationwide have gone without pay since Feb. 14, leading to longer security lines, more sick calls and nearly 500 workers quitting. The partial government shutdown, affecting only the Department of Homeland Security, came as both Democrats and Republicans in Congress sought to fund the TSA but Democrats withheld funds, pending reforms at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

At LaGuardia on Sunday, Lisa Neafsey, of Bergen County, New Jersey, said she was returning from a quick trip to Tennessee. Flying out of LaGuardia on Friday, there was about a 30-minute wait in security using TSA PreCheck, but she said the regular lines seemed to be much longer.

"It was a crazy line," she said.

Another traveler, Everett Weinberger, said he was arriving from Florida, where he had no delays in security.

"The journey was surprisingly good," said Weinberger, adding he is a "snowbird" based in Manhattan.

As of Sunday evening, websites for Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports were all advising travelers that security wait times are "significantly longer than normal and can change quickly based on passenger volume and TSA staffing."

On Thursday, Long Island MacArthur Airport posted on X that lines there "are operating efficiently" and said it recommended that travelers arrive two hours before departure.

Wait times listed on the MyTSA mobile app may not be accurate because TSA isn’t actively managing its sites during the partial government shutdown.

Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former TSA officer who runs a travel newsletter called Gate Access, said the staffing crisis may not improve significantly until officers are confident that they won’t be subjected to more skipped paychecks.

"It has to be an extended pay for them to come back or want to stay there," he said.

With AP

By Peter Gill

peter.gill@newsday.com