Despite Sickout, TSA Moving Passengers Through San Jose Airport

MILPITAS, CA -- Nor rain, nor hail, nor national work stoppage has given the Mineta San Jose International Airport unusual delays at checkpoints from the Transportation Security Administration.

With the federal government's partial shutdown sparked by a fight over funding a southern border wall moving through its third week, some TSA workers moved from their posts since they're operating without pay. The TSA experienced a rate of unscheduled absences of 4.6 percent Monday compared to 3.8 percent on the same day from a year ago.

TSA spokesman Tom Kelly told Patch the agency will not release how many security personnel in its 51,000-person workforce have walked from the posts at individual airports.

Nonetheless, the arm of Homeland Security screened more than 2 million passengers in the nation's airports Monday, with 99.9 percent of passengers waiting less than 30 minutes and 92.9 percent of passengers less than 15 minutes. In TSA pre-check lanes, passengers on average waited less than five minutes. It is tracked on its Twitter page at https://twitter.com/TSA?.

Wait times in San Jose beat those statistics, with passengers stalled at security checkpoints Monday for 21 minutes at the Silicon Valley airport. Pre-check travelers whizzed through in four minutes.

At San Francisco International Airport, the wait times were 29 and four minutes, respectively.

In Oakland, the international airport had travelers waiting 23 and four minutes, respectively.

"As of now, we haven't seen an impact to our operations," Kelly told Patch.

His declaration was echoed by officials with Mineta San Jose International Airport, who still recommend arriving three hours before for international flights.

Kelly declined to comment when asked if the TSA fears the funding ramifications of demonstrating the agency is able to function with fewer workers. Instead, Kelly said his agency "would rather focus on our mission."

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