Holiday waiting — Security lines lengthen at airports, but more flights are on time

WASHINGTON — If you're flying this Thanksgiving, you might have to spend more time waiting in line to get through security.

But take heart — your flight is more likely to be on time, according to a Gannett News Service analysis of federal and private air travel data.

On average, it took just slightly longer in 2007 than in 2006 — an extra 21 seconds — to reach an airport security checkpoint during the busiest time of day over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

But at some airports, the additional wait time was much greater.

The peak wait time at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, for example, increased about seven minutes to about 16-1/2 minutes from Thanksgiving 2006 to Thanksgiving 2007.

Overall, the average time it took to get through security lines at peak flying times rose to 11-1/2 minutes from 2006 to 2007. The average for the whole day — peak and other times — increased to about four minutes over the same period, an increase of only about 10 seconds.

At the Salt Lake City International Airport, the average wait time during Thanksgiving weekend last year was 9.6 minutes.

Betsy Rasmusen, a veteran business traveler from Arlington, Va., views Thanksgiving as the one time of the year to stay away from airports.

"That's when everyone with all their family belongings — most of which are not allowed as carry-on — try to game the system and ultimately fail," she said as she walked into Reagan Washington National Airport recently to catch a flight. "It just backs up the lines, and it's the same every year."

GNS looked at how long it took travelers to make their way through the line to get to an airport metal detector. Among the nation's 50 busiest airports, at the busiest time of the day:

• Twenty-nine airports reported longer wait times in 2007 — an average of about two-and-a-half minutes longer.

• Twenty-one airports reported improvements averaging about three minutes.

• The Norman Mineta San Jose International Airport and the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif., posted some of the most improved times.

Mineta cut almost nine minutes off its average peak wait time of more than 19 minutes by rerouting travelers around hurdles created by ongoing construction.