Officials expect busy airport over Memorial Day weekend



SEA-TAC, Wash. – Memorial Day Weekend is bound to be busy at Sea-Tac and other airports around the country.

Half a million people are expected to travel through Seattle’s largest airport in the coming days.

Sea-Tac is the eighth busiest airport in the country -- and now there’s a proposal to reduce the number of TSA officers, which could make security lines even longer.

“Lines that stretch over the sky bridges and into parking garages compromises our ability to ensure public safety,” said Port of Seattle’s Lance Lyttle during a house committee meeting this week.

Lyttle was warning that Sea-Tac’s boom in travelers, adding to a plan to send TSA agents to help secure the Mexican border, could mean the summer travel season may see even longer than normal back-ups in security.

“Would reduce the TSA’s ability to open all security lanes during peak this summer, which could result in lines out to our parking garage up to 4 to 5 days a week,” said Lyttle.

Officials also expect the coming holiday weekend to see tens-of-thousands more passengers packing the security lines.

Even last weekend was especially busy for Sea-Tac.

“We don’t want travelers stuck waiting in security lines and we don’t want large groups on the public side making a possible soft target,” said Lyttle.

The busy holiday long holiday weekend travel crunch begins Wednesday and lasts through Monday. Officials expect more than thirty-thousand more people to come through Sea-Tac during the weekend.