It was a busy Saturday over at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport — though not entirely for the reason you may think.
Travelers hoping to get away from the cold for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend packed the lobby and security lines at the Terminal 1, said Patrick Hogan, the director of public affairs for the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC).
In addition, Delta Air Lines charter flights headed to warmer destinations meant more people at the airport than normal, Hogan said.
"I think the busy holiday weekend, plus the fact that there are these extra charter flights that are being flown to sunny destinations, which we normally don't have on a Saturday morning, is really contributing to the length of the lines," he said.
He was unsure how long the wait times were — the tool that measures them was down because of construction, he said.
In addition, the Transportation Security Administration has been short-staffed at the airport for months, he said. At the same time as travelers were moving along the terminal Saturday, TSA was holding a job fair in Bloomington.
Sunday should be calmer, Hogan said, mainly because charter flights won't be scheduled.
It is the 29th day of the federal government shutdown, which has forced critical TSA employees, such as security officers and supervisors, to work without pay. Hogan said employees have been showing up to work at MSP Airport as normal. "They're just not getting a paycheck," he said.
