South Florida's biggest airline says it's seeing large numbers of its passengers grounded after standing in TSA checkpoint lines and they say something needs to be done about it.
American Airlines has far more flights out of Miami International Airport than anyone else and it's saying something has to be done by the Feds so travelers can make their flights.
"What we are facing here at MIA is that passengers are standing in very long TSA lines and consequently missing their flights because the lines are so long," said AA spokesperson Alexis Aran Coello.
The TSA told NBC 6 it has added some security measures at MIA and it's doing this as efficiently as possible but says there's no way to determine that large numbers of passengers are missing their flights due to them.
"We understand that there is security in place and we appreciate the security that is in place to protect our passengers and our operation but we think that it should be done in a reasonable amount of time," Coello said.
American says in March over 2,000 passengers and 8,200 bags didn't make it to their destination because of the TSA. This month so far, 1,300 passengers and over 800 bags on the ground while their flights took off.
TSA officials said the longest wait time in recent weeks is 48 minutes and American is clumping flights together to make connecting wait times shorter but that means more passengers are at MIA at the same time.
Local
"Passengers who arrive at MIA two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international flights, as they have been advised across the industry for years to do, have not missed and will not miss flights due to TSA screening," TSA officials said in a statement.
American said none of the problems should happen because 72 hours in advance its tells the TSA how many people are coming. The TSA said it does take that into consideration and said over 90 percent of passengers waited less than 20 minutes.
The advice to travelers is show up early, really early.
