Updated March 9, 2026, 12:39 p.m. ET
Security lines stretched for hours at several major U.S. airports Sunday, March 8, as a partial government shutdown and the start of spring break travel collided, leaving some passengers scrambling to make their flights.
Airports, including Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, reported unusually long wait times at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints. At one point Sunday afternoon, security lines at Hobby Airport averaged about three and a half hours. By 6 p.m., waits were still around three hours.
In New Orleans, officials urged travelers to plan ahead.
“TSA is experiencing a shortage of workers at the security checkpoint, which is causing longer-than-average lines,” the airport said in a social media post.
Travelers reported lines winding through terminals and even outside the buildings. Eliana Patterson, who was returning home to Boston, told Reuters the line at the New Orleans airport stretched well beyond the checkpoint area.
“My flight’s been delayed but if it hadn’t been I’d be a little worried.”
Similar delays were reported at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to TSA.
The staffing crunch comes during a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA. Funding lapsed Feb. 13 after Congress failed to reach a deal on immigration enforcement reforms, leaving roughly 50,000 airport security screeners working without pay.
“Travelers are facing TSA lines of up to nearly three hours long at some major airports, causing missed flights and massive delays during peak travel,” DHS said in a statement.
Airlines say the timing couldn’t be worse, as the spring travel season ramps up. Carriers expect a record-breaking 171 million passengers to fly during the busy period, about 4% more than the same two-month span last year.
“The shutdown is having very real consequences, and hardworking federal aviation workers, the airline industry and our passengers are being used as a political football once again. This is simply unacceptable and un-American,” Chris Sununu, president and CEO of Airlines for America, said in a statement. “Congress and the administration must act with urgency to reach a deal that reopens DHS and ends this shutdown.”
How long is the wait time at my airport’s TSA line?
Travelers can usually check security wait times at their airport through the MyTSA mobile app, which provides estimated screening times, traveler-reported delays and guidance on what items are allowed through security, but the agency warns that the app isn’t being updated during the shutdown, so the data presented there may not be accurate. Those crossing land borders can use the Border Wait Time to see hourly updates for passenger vehicles, commercial traffic and pedestrian crossings.
Travelers should plan to leave extra time for TSA and customs screenings while the shutdown continues.
The shutdown also coincides with changes at the top of DHS.
President Donald Trump announced on social media March 5 that he was removing Kristi Noem as secretary of the department and appointing her as a special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a new security initiative.
Noem is the first cabinet official to lose her post in the current Trump administration, and her tenure as head of DHS was marked by controversy.
She oversaw a brutal immigration crackdown with thousands of undocumented immigrants deported under her leadership. Those deportations included immigrants who were sent to CECOT, a notorious prison in El Salvador. Noem toured the facility last year and came under scrutiny for wearing a $50,000 Rolex while posing in front of an overcrowded holding cell.
Mass protests popped up in cities across the country in opposition to DHS policies under Noem. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained a five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, in Minneapolis earlier this winter. His story became a rallying cry for those opposed to the mass deportation plans.
DHS employees also shot multiple U.S. citizens amid the protests and other enforcement actions in the last year. Two Minneapolis residents, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by ICE and Customs and Border Protection officials.
Noem also spent $220 million on an ad campaign for DHS, which the president denied knowing about in advance.
Trump has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, as the next DHS secretary.
Contributing: Reuters
(This story was updated to add new information.)
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York, and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.
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