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Federal aviation officials are anticipating nearly 3 million people to fly both Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and even more are expected Sunday, as Americans get ready to wind down a hectic year by visiting friends and family for the holidays.
By now you know not to bring much in the way of liquids through airport security, though that could change in the future. But ahead of the holiday rush, the Transportation Security Administration did offer some practical advice for people hoping to make the trip through security faster and easier.
“Start with an empty bag,” TSA administrator David Pekoske said. “We often find that people have things in their carry-on bags that they forgot about because they had put it in several weeks, or in some cases, several months ago.”
Over 6,000 firearms have been recovered by TSA this year, Pekoske said during a news conference last week.
Beyond the expensive penalties associated with that, guns also cause entire security lines to get shut down for as long as 15 minutes at a time, during a period when TSA is hoping to get everyone through in 30 minutes or less. One less line, and a thorough search, slows everyone else down.
“I would just encourage people, if you travel with a firearm — you can absolutely do it — it just needs to be in your checked bag,” Pekoske said.
You’d also need to let the airlines know it’s there ahead of time.
On the flip side, one item they don’t want to see in your checked bag is a lithium battery.
“Remember to check recalls and keep the lithium batteries in the cabin, not in your checked bags,” Federal Aviation Administration administrator Michael Whitaker said.
He added that mistreatment of airline workers won’t be tolerated.
“We will not hesitate to pursue civil penalties, legal enforcement action against any passenger who assaults, threatens, intimidates or interferes with airline crew members,” Whitaker said.
This is also the time of year when TSA gets the most questions about what can and can’t be taken on a plane. The easiest way to check is by visiting TSA.gov and clicking on the special link telling you what you can carry-on and what needs to be checked.
But you can also text TSA at ASK-TSA (275-872) for answers. Pekoske said you’ll get an answer pretty quickly.
Long term, the hope is that improvements in screening technology will make some of those limits on liquids more flexible in the future.
“We’ve been investing in that technology now for about five years,” Pekoske said. “That’s called ‘computed tomography’ or CT or CAT scan X-ray systems. That will eventually allow us, with some additional testing and some software modifications, to relax the liquid limits for passengers. We’re not quite at that stage just yet.”
Pekoske said with current contracts and a boost in funding, all 2,300 screening lanes around the country could be outfitted with those machines by the year 2031. But at the current funding levels, it might not happen until 2042.
In the meantime, give yourself plenty of time to arrive at the airport and get through security. Because while you may not be the reason so many people get delayed and held up, someone else might be.
