Going on Spring Break? Prep for an Airport Wait

Spring breakers hoping for a smooth escape to warmer climes are instead walking into a travel thicket of long lines, higher prices, and shifting flight maps. A partial government shutdown is leaving TSA officers unpaid and resulting in some checkpoints being badly understaffed, producing hourslong waits at airports nationwide, reports the Washington Post.

• Hobby Airport urged travelers to show up four hours before departure. Other airports, including those in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Charlotte, North Carolina, also reported long lines over the weekend, per Travel Weekly. Airlines for America says more than 2.7 million people passed through TSA on Sunday and is pressing Congress to fund Homeland Security, calling three-hour waits "unacceptable," per the Post.

• There's also other turbulence at nationwide airports. The Global Entry fast-track program has been suspended since Feb. 22, leaving customs lines unpredictable. Officials are steering eligible travelers toward the Mobile Passport Control app as a partial workaround.
• Meanwhile, in the Middle East, roughly 40,000 flights have been canceled since US and Israeli strikes on Iran began, per Cirium data, with airlines rerouting around closed airspaces over Iran, Russia, and Ukraine. Security experts advise reconsidering trips through hubs like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha in the coming weeks and looking instead to travel through places such as Jordan, Egypt, or western Turkey—or head west rather than east, via Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, or Japan.

• On top of all that, war-driven oil price spikes are pushing up the cost of both gas and fares. Average US gasoline prices jumped more than 50 cents in a week, to $3.45 a gallon, and may rise further, according to GasBuddy. Airlines are already nudging ticket prices higher as jet fuel costs climb, prompting some analysts to suggest booking now rather than later.
• Mexico remains on the table for most tourists, despite recent cartel violence in Puerto Vallarta, though the US still urges extra caution in the state of Jalisco. Some travelers are shifting to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, or Hawaii instead.