Crunch at Sea-Tac eases as travelers adjust to new rules

Well-prepared travelers swept through security Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a sign that a calm weekend may follow the chaos caused by the new regulations for passengers.

With about 100,000 people passing through Sea-Tac on Friday, most travelers were pleased to find lines much shorter. Most were aware of the foiled terror plot and knew about the new ban on liquids, gels and creams in carry-on luggage.

A day earlier, more than 3,700 travelers missed their flights and 164 departures were delayed as Sea-Tac became one of the nation's most congested airports. At its worst, passengers waited in line for more than 3 ½ hours Thursday.

By comparison, several large airports reported peak waits of one to two hours, including Kennedy International Airport in New York and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The new precautions, enacted about 4 a.m. Thursday, banned liquid items from being stored in carry-on luggage or taken on board flights. The change resulted in hours-long security delays for passengers who were forced to repack banned items in checked luggage or throw them out.

Lara Miller, a 32-year-old mother of twin toddlers from Mobile, Ala., said she arrived at Sea-Tac 2 ½ hours early Friday for her early-morning flight to Chicago. She said it was difficult traveling with children under the new ban but that accommodations for taking baby formula and medications on board were helpful.

"It could be worse," she said. "I'm really surprised the lines are moving so quickly."

Passengers arriving from other airports across the nation echoed Miller's pleasant surprise.

Donna Stevenson of Juneau, Alaska, said she boarded her Friday-morning flight to Seattle without problem. She said it appeared most travelers heeded the warnings to pack liquids in checked luggage or leave them at home.

Arriving flights at Sea-Tac were mostly on time throughout the day, with many arriving early.

Debbie Heevey arrived with her mother from Houston to visit family in Seattle. She said her hometown airport, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, was "a little crazy, but that's pretty usual down there."

Comparing Seattle's wait lines to those at other airports is like "comparing apples to bananas," said Jennifer Peppin, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman in Seattle.

Peppin said Sea-Tac's narrower public areas made the lines difficult to navigate Thursday and lines became crisscrossed.

"And worse yet, some folks were even making circles in line," she said.

Once the crowds swelled, moving them through became more difficult, Peppin said.

She also blamed the long lines on the TSA's decision to put the stringent screening procedures in place at 1 a.m., earlier than at some other airports. Some didn't begin banning liquids in carry-on bags until 10 a.m., she said.

TSA had 28 screening lanes open at 6 a.m. Thursday and soon began calling in employees to work extra shifts. But the agency didn't get the number of lanes increased until the afternoon, opening 35 lanes by 3 p.m.

On the previous Thursday, TSA handled the normal summer traffic with 22 lanes, with an average wait time of five minutes.

Early Friday morning, passengers experienced some delays as thousands packed the terminal early in hope of avoiding the massive lines seen Thursday. But those delays quickly faded, making many of the crowd-handling precautions put in place by Sea-Tac management unnecessary. TSA staffing levels were higher than usual.

The longest lines at the airport were at check-in counters, mainly caused by passengers arriving extra early in anticipation of long delays. But security lines didn't back up as some had expected, with airport workers holding "End of Line" signs waiting for a rush that hadn't come. By 1:30 p.m., many had abandoned their signs.

August is Sea-Tac's busiest month, with daily passenger traffic usually approaching Thanksgiving-weekend levels all month long, airport spokesman Bob Parker said. Just under 100,000 passengers passed through the airport Friday, 51,000 of them on outbound flights.

Parker said slightly fewer passengers — about 95,000 — were expected to pass through Sea-Tac today, with about half flying outbound and needing to pass through security checkpoints.

Seattle Times staff reporter Christine Clarridge and news researcher David Turim and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nathan Hurst: 206-464-2112 or nhurst@seattletimes.com