Long security lines at Sea-Tac Airport this past weekend may continue.
Flying out of Sea-Tac Airport this week? You may want to get there even earlier than usual. On Sunday, the wait times for security screening became so long that the security line ended up stretching into the parking garage and some travelers missed their flights. Such long security lines at Sea-Tac Airport are not typical, prompting questions about the circumstances behind Sunday’s situation.
Read on for all the details.
Although there were no staff shortages and 27 out of 29 security lanes were open during the peak hours of 8:15 a.m. to noon, travelers said they waited in line for over two hours. TSA said wait times were up to one hour. Such long security lines are “very unusual” at Sea-Tac, according to the airport’s media relations manager Perry Cooper. Unfortunately, many travelers said they missed their flights due to the long security lines.
Around 4,000 cruise ship passengers were dropped off at Sea-Tac every hour on Sunday, according to TSA. This high volume of cruise ship travelers could certainly be contributing to long wait times at the airport. A total of about 60,000 travelers flew out of Sea-Tac on Sunday. A similar number of 56,000 fliers are expected today.
Plan ahead and arrive early. Use the flySEA app to check your flight status and get live TSA security checkpoint wait times. pic.twitter.com/VkZ4CbqUEG
— Seattle-Tacoma Intl. Airport (@flySEA) September 19, 2022
If you plan to fly out of Sea-Tac and want to check the security wait time, you can download the flySEA app for live updates.