TSA Shortages Impacting Air Travel Nationwide

Airports around the country are reporting a TSA shortage as travel demand continues to surge.

Tulsa International Airport said they are fully staffed, but you should still be ready for long waits with so many people starting to travel once again.

"I am ready to roll,” traveler Akila Mitchell said. It was only Mitchell's second time flying this year.

"Today's flight was full, so that was a little concerning, other than that everything moved good. Make sure you arrive super early,” Mitchell said.

Tulsa International saw a 239% increase in passengers going through TSA during the Fourth of July weekend compared to 2020.

"The U.S. average was about 83%, and we were 95%, so it kind of shows how stronger we are rebounding here in terms of traffic,” Director of Air Service and Marketing Andrew Pierini said.

According to a TSA memo obtained by the Washington post, more than 230 airports across the county are currently under-staffed with TSA officers, and some airports are short as many as 100 TSA employees.

"The concessions here are having issues in terms of getting people on board to work, so there are some staffing shortages in terms of that, but for airport employees, we have been able to retain all of that,” Pierini said.

Tulsa International isn't one of the airports impacted by the staffing shortage, but the crowds at the airport have been hard to miss lately.

"It was absolutely fabulous to kind of be back out, we were in multiple states,” traveler Shannyn Burdess said.

Airport officials said the Fourth of July weekend was almost back to pre-pandemic levels of passengers.