When extended weather delays postpone the departures of Breeze Airways’ night flights from Vero Beach Regional Airport, the Transportation Security Administration says it has no choice but to eventually shut down its passenger checkpoint – even if the decision leaves some travelers stranded.
“If the airline communicates with us, we can keep the checkpoint open beyond our normal hours,” TSA regional spokesman Mark Howell said last week. “But if the delay stretches on and on, at some point we’ve got to close.
“We don’t want to strand people, but there are limits to how long we can go,” he added. “We just don’t have the same flexibility with our manpower at smaller airports, so we’d have to pay the officers overtime to keep them there.
“It comes down to taxpayer dollars.”
Howell’s explanation came in a belated response to Vero Beach 32963’s inquiry earlier this month, after several Breeze passengers ticketed to travel on night flights to Providence, Rhode Island, in late March arrived at the airport, only to find out the TSA security checkpoint had closed.
That doesn’t happen at most major-market airports, where TSA security checkpoints are open all night.
Here, though, the city’s small airport serves only one airline that offers limited service to only a few destination in the Northeast. And when the departures of night flights are delayed indefinitely, the TSA agents don’t wait around.
They shut down their operations and lock the door, usually by 8 p.m., though the checkpoints can remain open until 9 p.m. if flights are delayed.
However, passengers who arrive late – and do not go through the security screening process – cannot legally be allowed to board their flights, even if they’re holding boarding passes.
Several passengers on the March 27 flight, in fact, said they arrived at the airport at 9:05 p.m. for a flight that was scheduled to depart shortly after 7 p.m. but didn’t take off until nearly 11 p.m.
The security checkpoint closed at 9 p.m., and they were not permitted to board.
Vero Beach resident Bernie Augustine said about a dozen ticketed passengers were left stranded when they were turned away from their weather-delayed March 27 flight, which didn’t depart until 10:30 p.m.
John’s Island resident Gail Williams said her family members experienced a similar scenario two days later, when they arrived at the airport a few minutes past 9 p.m. for their weather-delayed flight. It didn’t matter that they had already checked their baggage.
“You usually find those extended wait times with weather delays, when departure times keep getting pushed back, especially in situations similar to what happened in Vero Beach, where Breeze was turning around the same aircraft,” Howell said.
“You’re waiting for the inbound flight to arrive, but you don’t know when it will take off,” he added. “That makes it tough for us, because we’re eventually going to reach a point where the officers have to make a call.
“We try to work with the airlines the best we can, and sometimes we can add a shift, but we’re limited by the amount we can spend on overtime.”
Howell said Breeze’s night flights to Providence – they’re usually scheduled to depart between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. – were delayed often last month, requiring the TSA officers to stay late.
Sometimes during Vero Beach’s busy season, he said, the officers can work 12 to 14 hours in one day.
“They’re stationed in Vero Beach, but when the airport is exceptionally busy, we can bring in people from a nearby airport,” Howell said, quickly adding, “But that’s rare.”
Besides, he said, Vero Beach’s airport has only one checkpoint lane, “so bringing in more officers doesn’t really help much.”
As for the late-arriving passengers who get to the checkpoint area while the TSA agents are still inside the terminal – but the screening equipment has been turned off – Howell said it takes time to reboot and calibrate the system.
“If you shut it down for the night,” he explained, “it’s not easy to start back up.”
Breeze spokesman Gareth Edmondson-Jones said the airline not only sends text messages and emails to keep passengers informed on the status of their flights, but it also provides similar alerts pertaining to security checkpoint closures.
However, Edmondson-Jones said the airline sends those updates to only the person booking the flights – and the text messages are sent to only those passengers who provide their phone numbers.
When Breeze knows flights are going to be delayed, especially at night, the airline asks the TSA to keep their checkpoints open, he added, “but we have no control over it.”
