US welcomes international visitors with long lines

The summer travel season is heating up and US customs is being caught short. A lack of customs agents staffing US airports means that travelers this summer are in for a long wait.

Paul Haney, the deputy executive director at Los Angeles International Airport, said that passengers waited up to three hours to clear customs at the Tom Bradley International Terminal last weekend.

The Tom Bradly Terminal at LAX is the main terminal for international flights and handles more than half of the airport’s total traffic. The extremely long lines at customs have forced some passengers to be retained on their aircraft after landing for up to half an hour.

Haney says it’s “a situation not seen since the peak travel season of 2000.”

LAX isn’t alone on the long line front either. As carriers increase the number of flights of the summer and more travelers take to the air, officials at Washington Dulles, New York John F. Kennedy and Newark are also bracing for the crunch. None of them have enough customs staff to handle the long lines of international passengers soon to be disembarking at their airports.

Last year the longest wait at JFK for arriving international passengers was two and a half hours. Despite growth of up to 18% in the number of travelers in US airports, staffing levels for customs has remained largely the same.

Not only are travelers in for long lines going through the US this summer, but they should expect over worked customs agents on overtime with huge lines to be a little stressed out. Some tourism officials are afraid the agents might even become rude.

The solution: you could always explore Canada this summer, or bring a good book and expect a long wait after your long flight.