TSA: Longer Airport Security Lines May Be Here To Stay

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- If you think you're waiting on longer security lines at the airport, you're absolutely right.

And as CBS News' Jamie Yuccas reported Sunday night, the Transportation Security Administration said you might just have to get used to it.

Across the country, long lines and frustrated passengers have stacked up at airport security checkpoints.

Airlines have been warning passengers about longer waits on line. Travelers in Minneapolis and Atlanta have responded with angry remarks and tweets.

"What we've seen is a 10.5 increase in travel since 2011," said U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

Klobuchar said Sunday that the record number of passengers traveling this year reflects a national trend.

"This is a problem that's not unique to the Twin Cities," she said. "It's a problem that is going on across the country."

Nationally, the number of TSA screeners is down 15 percent since 2011.

TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told Congress last week that the agency is taking steps to do more with less.

"We are rethinking how we invest in technology, and are partnering with several airlines and airports to develop in near future a dramatic improved a passenger screening environment in couple of key airports," Neffenger said.

But the general manager Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport said he was unconvinced. He said he is considering replacing TSA screeners with private security workers.

"The airport is dreading the outcome of the summer of 2016," he said in a recent letter to the head of the TSA.

It would not be the first time an airport privatized security workers. San Francisco, Kansas City and Orlando have already done it.