Austin American-Statesman: Austin airport chief asked TSA for more agents weeks before weekend 'chaos,' documents show

Weeks before what U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett called an “embarrassing failure” at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the airport’s director urgently sought more federal agents to bolster operations as officials anticipated a passenger surge, documents obtained by the American-Statesman show.

As airport officials warned that problems could continue through the spring, Doggett asked federal officials Tuesday to expedite the director’s requests in letters to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agencies.

The letters offer among the most substantive insight into airport staffing of federal agents, who both screen passengers prior to departure and when they arrive from international flights.

Doggett’s actions came as a follow-up from two letters airport executive director Jacqueline Yaft sent starting March 3 to the federal government. 

In her first letter to TSA Administrator David Pekoske, Yaft said she feared possibly creating terrorist “soft targets” by having passengers waiting to be screened spill onto the curbside. She said what is unfolding at the airport also is resulting in missed flights and damage to the city’s image on the global stage.

Yaft asked the TSA for at least 100 more security officers and more canine teams from other airports to expedite screening, telling Pekoske that “long lines that stretch through the terminal and even to curbside on peak days has become a normal occurrence.”

She also asked that about 40 officers, who were sent to Austin temporarily from October through March, be allowed to remain and that screening technology be updated to help passengers move through security faster.

In a separate letter April 1 to the Houston field office for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Yaft asked regional director Judson Murdock for at least 15 more agents, saying that without them, the airport will struggle to add or maintain international flights. 

“Inability to manage the flow of international passengers not only impacts those arriving from international flights, it creates a domino effect that also impacts domestic airliners because airport staff are unable to deplane passengers in a timely manner,” she said.  

She added that in peak times, arriving passengers have been held on aircrafts because of long lines stretching to federal inspection facilities.

The letters come as Austin’s airport reached a tipping point in recent weeks, leaving officials urging passengers in some instances to arrive up to three hours early for flights. 

Snapshot of Austin's growth

The airport is serving as a snapshot of Austin’s explosive growth, particularly as thousands of people return to air travel after delaying trips earlier in the coronavirus pandemic. 

Yaft added in her letter to the TSA that airport officials fear the problem will only deteriorate as airlines rapidly add new flights – up from 219 daily departures in 2019 to 280 today – and the number of passengers moving through the facility grows. 

Meanwhile, she told Murdock that the number of international passengers arriving into Austin has grown from 437,003 in 2018 to more than 600,000 expected this year. 

Patricia Mancha, the TSA spokesperson for the Southwest region, said Pekoske will respond to Yaft directly and will not comment to the media. Customs and Border Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

On Tuesday, Doggett echoed Yaft’s requests for immediate federal help. 

“Austin’s status as an international city supporting world-class endeavors and worldwide visitors is being held hostage by its airport’s inability to access TSA support,” Doggett wrote. “Without the support of TSA staffing, AUS’s efforts fall short.” 

Doggett’s office said it did not receive an immediate response from federal officials. 

Doggett said he was caught in the airport scramble himself March 28, when he said he arrived at the airport for a trip to Washington, D.C. and found the facility in “chaos.” 

“Security lines spilled outside, passengers missed flights, and a rental car drop off was backed up to the point that people desperate to make their flights left their cars on the side of the road,” he wrote. 

Lines that morning made headlines, but capacity issues at the airport were ongoing before that week, which brought several major sporting events to Austin, including a NASCAR race at the Circuit of the Americas, the Texas Relays and the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play event.

'Hard to project'

The airport has been playing catch up for years, expanding its capacity as demand for flights out of Austin grows even faster. AIBA was last expanded in 2019, when the city added nine gates, upping the number of outgoing passengers the facility was designed to accommodate to 15 million a year. That year, a record 17.3 million people flew out of the airport. 

Airport staff say that the uncertainty the coronavirus pandemic created throughout the travel industry, as well as understaffing at airlines and TSA, have had an impact on the travel experience in Austin.

Airport spokesperson Sam Haynes said  the airport is expanded based on “proven demand,” and the pandemic made it more difficult for the city’s Department of Aviation to predict what that demand might be.  

“We initially believed that it would take us until 2024 just to get to 2019 passenger levels, but this year, we're expecting to surpass it and actually serve 20 million passengers,” she said. “The travel industry can be hard to project out and COVID just made that even more challenging.”

The goal is to boost capacity to 25.2 million outgoing passengers by 2032, she said. 

TSA, airlines and companies that provide travel-related services  — like the companies that airlines contract with for ground crew personnel — are also experiencing the same staffing shortages many other industries face.

More:How travelers can navigate through the Austin airport, avoid headache-inducing traffic

Mancha, the TSA spokesperson, said she can’t disclose how many open positions the agency has in Austin for security reasons. However, she said there are vacancies to be filled and that TSA is offering a signing bonus and an additional bonus at six months among other benefits to try and attract staff. The salary range for a full time TSA officer job in Austin posted on the agency’s website is $41,479 to $56,937. 

Mancha blamed increased flights out of Austin for the long security lines, saying more flights brings more passengers to the airport than the building’s infrastructure can support.

Haynes, meanwhile, said the airlines servince Austin schedule flights based on demand, and the city’s goal is to make flying as convenient, affordable and accessible to local customers as possible. She said there is no precedent for ABIA to reduce flights because of long security lines.

“The airlines schedule their flights,” she said. “Our goal is to bring air service to customers and more flights just means more options. It also means more competitive pricing for our customers. Our mission and goal, at the core of it, is to bring in flights.”

Haynes said flights will continue to be added this summer, which is typically a busy time of year for travel. There will be 40% more seats available out of Bergstrom this summer than there were in the summer of 2019, which was the busiest year to date, she said. 

Long-term plans

Haynes said the airport has taken several steps to help with long security lines, in addition adding three security lanes last December and working with TSA to increase staffing. This includes reconfiguring the passenger queuing area to maximize space for orderly lines and bringing in additional airport staff so TSA agents can focus on screening. 

The city is also gearing up for long-term expansion projects at Bergstrom. The plan includes filling in an atrium to give more space on the ground floor and more room for improved ticket counters. The expansion also includes a 10- to 20-gate concourse that will connect to the main terminal with an underground tunnel.

Some of the improvements, such as a new baggage handling system, will begin construction as early as this summer, Haynes said.

The airport is busiest in the mornings between 5 a.m. 8 a.m., especially on Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. Mancha said another peak travel time out of Austin is 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

“These peaks are driven by the flight departure schedules determined by the airlines,” Mancha said. “When there is a concentrated number of flight departures over a short period of time, there will be intervals when the number of departing passengers exceeds the capacity of the TSA security checkpoint at AUS. This is why it is essential that travelers arrive well ahead of their flight departure to allow for completion of every step of the travel process from curb to gate.”