Long security lines snaked into baggage claim areas and parking garages at some U.S. airports this weekend, a possible indicator of more widespread travel problems as the latest government shutdown drags on.
That kind of disruption, while not yet widespread, is not a concern that typically surfaces at San Francisco International Airport, the largest of nearly two dozen U.S. airports where screening checkpoints are staffed by private contractors under a little-used federal program that allows airports to outsource security screenings while maintaining TSA oversight.
Because contractors’ pay comes from a federal contract, it often continues even when the government shuts down.
You mean the security that involves clearing out not only the gate that is destined for Tel Aviv, but all of the adjacent gates around that one, roping it off, and forcing everyone to queue up so that you can present your luggage to their personnel and have them go through every bag one by one? That approach?
I will admit that it’s been over a decade since I flew to Israel, but I will never forget the intrusiveness of what I went through going to and from.