If you need to catch a flight this week, it’s best to get to the airport early.
With Spring Break upon us, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport expects Monday the 23rd, Thursday the 26th, Friday the 27th, and Monday the 30th to be peak travel days, with over 16,000 passengers expected to move through the airport each day.
The increase in travel, mixed with TSA agents going without pay during the partial government shutdown, means some flyers are seeing extended delays.
“It's not a joke. I thought it was. I did not believe that it was going to be this long, but it was,” said Sara Siegel, who flew into Reno from San Diego on Monday.
Siegel and her boyfriend Sethen Tomaselli said their annual spring trip to ski near Lake Tahoe was delayed by almost two hours.
"It was a mess. I mean, we got into San Diego [Airport] at 6:30,” Tomaselli said. “We didn't get through security until 8:30.”
“My mom warned us,” Siegel added, “and she said that we need to be there three hours early, because I've seen all the social media, and I was like, ‘oh, maybe it's just social media making it worse,’ but no."
Tomaselli said he's thankful their 8:30 a.m. flight got delayed by a few minutes. Otherwise, they would have just missed it.
“Hopefully, other people who are in the same boat, their flights are getting delayed a little bit,” he said.
In spite of higher traffic volumes and TSA delays, other flyers report their flights have been smooth sailing.
“Maybe a two-minute delay, with the TSA at the airport security,” said Matt Moyer, who flew in from Orange County. “But once I got through, there was more of a problem waiting when my computer ran out of juice.”
Moyer said it took 35 minutes to get from home to the gate at the airport in Orange County.
Even if they're not seeing delays, travelers hope an end to the partial government shutdown comes soon.
“I'm a little disappointed the government can't quite get that figured out. I try to keep the politics out of it, but I think they really need to try to figure something out,” Moyer said.
"I mean, if I wasn't getting paid, I probably wouldn't show up for work either,” Tomaselli said.
The Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority said it is not seeing an increase in TSA wait times due to the lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security as a result of the government shutdown.
