Airport Wait Times Have Nearly Doubled Since The Sequester

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Security lines at airports have nearly doubled in length since the beginning of the sequestration Friday night, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said on Monday.

Speaking at a POLITICO Playbook breakfast, Napolitano said the imposed cuts are already having an impact on the Transportation Security Administration:

Now that we are having to reduce or eliminate basically overtime both for TSA and for customs, now that we have instituted a hiring freeze…we will begin today sending out furlough notices. We are already seeing the effects.

Lines are “150 to 200 percent as long as we would normally expect,” she added.

Cuts to the tune of $600 million in expenditures to the Federal Aviation Administration's budget will impact air travel as well.

On February 22, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta laid out plans to reduce equipment maintenance, furlough 47,000 employees, and close some air traffic control towers.

All that, they said, could lead to 90-minute delays during peak hours at large airports.