It’s been a story of summer crankiness: the TSA and its airport security screening contractors are terribly understaffed, causing epic wait times during peak travel season for the United States.
If you’re a frequent business traveler, you may already have TSA Pre-Check, the security clearance that helps buyers bypass long lines at screening and customs. If you don’t, or you have staff who don’t travel frequently enough to warrant the $85 fee, a swarm of new apps are striving to take a little pain out of the wait.
- My TSA: This is the TSA’s app, which relies on user-generated data to provide approximate wait times in 10-minute increments. This app hasn’t received rave reviews (it has trouble updating in real time), but the TSA has promised to release a new version soon.
- MiFlight: Also crowd sourced, this app has been likened to Waze for its ability to show delays and provide estimated wait times in real time.
- WhatsBusy: Not an app, this website relies on TSA data to estimate wait times.
- iFly: Similar to WhatsBusy, the two share data.
Happy travels!
By Prasana William