Few Memorial Day airport headaches, most wait times bearable

The dogs can screen large groups of passengers for explosives, eliminating the need to remove shoes and laptops, TSA spokesman Mike England said last week.

At Miami International Airport, Fernando Del Gaudio arrived three hours early for a flight home to Buenos Aires, Argentina, only to find that the regular security lines and the pre-screened lines in the American Airlines terminal were empty Monday evening.

In recent weeks, passengers at the same checkpoint inside the world's busiest airport have waited in single-file lines stretching into the airport's atrium or back to baggage claim.

Reese McCranie, a spokesman for the Atlanta airport, said security wait times averaged 15 minutes or less throughout the weekend, aided by 30 TSA officers on loan from smaller airports and about 34 new officers who started work a week ago.

The airport hired 27 extra customer service staff and added more disposal bins for prohibited items to help smooth out the security screening process, Fennell said.

At JFK Airport in New York City, where a computer outage caused massive check-in delays on Sunday, officials and passengers said things were much better Monday for most travelers.