Miserably long airport lines ease as TSA workers start to recoup back pay

A TSA worker checks passengers at Greater Pittsburgh International Airport in Imperial, Pa., on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Abysmal wait times at airports shrank Monday morning as tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers started getting back pay after more than a month without income — apparently prompting fewer to call out.

Four-hour wait times that plagued some airports last week have dwindled to mere minutes as some TSA employees saw payments pop up in their bank accounts.

One TSA worker in Houston said he’ll finally be able to buy the food, gas and medication he needs. Others hope to pay their missed rent before they get evicted.

But one TSA employee in Chicago said she still hadn’t been paid Monday morning. CNN has reached out to TSA and the Department of Homeland Security for comment about when employees will receive all the pay they’re owed.

About 61,000 TSA employees have been working without pay since a partial government shutdown started Feb. 14. Collectively, they’ve missed more than US$1 billion in pay, leaving some unable to afford basic necessities. Some have been forced to take other jobs.

What this means for travelers

It’s unclear how fast and how drastically the situation will improve for airline passengers.

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, an epicenter of the misery, had 75-minute wait times before dawn Monday — still above typical wait times but far lower than the hours-long lines from previous weeks.

Security lines at the major New York City airports were less than 30 minutes early Monday. Wait times at Los Angeles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport dipped into the single digits.

And all four TSA checkpoints are now open at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where wait times stretched to three hours Friday when only half the lanes were open. Some passengers breezed through security Monday in just a few minutes.

But some major hubs, including Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, have stopped publicizing wait times.

“Due to current federal conditions, passengers are advised to allow at least 4 hours or more for domestic and international screenings,” Hartsfield-Jackson’s website warned Monday morning. But the lines there appeared minimal Monday morning.

Even with long-delayed back pay, the TSA workforce will not be the same. About 500 workers, or about 0.82 per cent of total personnel, have quit since the partial government shutdown started.

But the number of TSA officers calling out from work has improved in recent days. After 3,450 workers didn’t show up to work Thursday and 3,560 called out on Friday, the number dropped to about 2,800 Saturday, according to DHS data.

‘Our finances are ruined’

Some TSA workers have paid for basic necessities by maxing out their credit cards — and incurring late fees they also can’t afford.

A TSA agent in Houston, who requested anonymity to protect his job, said he’ll be able to buy groceries and pay back the loans he took out.

Another officer at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport also received two full paychecks that he missed but not the remaining funds from the partial paycheck.

DHS said it would start sending employees their back pay Monday after President Donald Trump ordered the agency Friday to immediately resume compensating them. But some workers question the president’s directive, including whether they can expect to get their next paycheck in two weeks.

TSA agents have long been perceived as political pawns when lawmakers can’t agree on funding packages and parts of the government shut down.

“This is a natural disaster that was caused by Congress,” said Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA workers.

“Back pay is not going to address (the) systemic issues,” he said. In the past five months, “We have been shut down 50 per cent of the time.”

Jones said it will be difficult for TSA agents to recover from the impact of this shutdown.

“The vast majority are devastated,” he said. “My colleagues, they’re like, ‘Our finances are ruined.’”

CNN’s Aaron Cooper, Pete Muntean, Steve Williams and Toni Odejimi contributed to this report.

By Holly Yan, Tami Luhby, Chris Youd, CNN