We’re halfway through the first month of the new year, you guys! That means most of the “Year in Review” posts are pretty much done.
The TSA was a little late to the table though, and juuuuuuust put out their “2023 Year in Review” on Friday the 12th.
I actually enjoy reading the TSA’s year in review every year because they’ll share little snippets that we, the general public, might not otherwise hear about. Here are some interesting snippets of what the TSA did in 2023:
- Screened more than 858 million passengers, averaging about 2.4 million passengers per day; 484 million checked bags and 1.9 billion carry-on items. The agency also pre-screened nearly a billion passengers through Secure Flight.
- Prevented 6,737 firearms (93% loaded, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???) from getting into the secure areas of the airport and onboard aircraft.
- Executed a new compensation plan for TSA employees in July 2023 – a bunch of them got raises, which hopefully has helped with some of them being so dang irritable. As a result, TSA has seen a significant reduction in attrition and an improvement in the ability to recruit for open positions.
- Trained frontline employees at their new state-of-the-art TSA Academy West at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and TSA Academy East in Glynco, Ga., where the 100,000th TSO graduated in September (here are some of the things they’re taught).
- AskTSA answered 3 million traveler questions, usually within 2 minutes (I didn’t like the answer they gave me, LOL).
- Enrolled another 4 million people into TSA PreCheck (that’s why they tried to fool us with a recent announcement).
- Added 8 new airlines to their roster (these are the most recent).
- Updated their rules for who can use PreCheck for free.
- Continued to deploy next-gen CAT machines.
- Expanded their mobile driver’s program via Apple and now Google cell phones.
- Conducted a passenger experience survey with a sample size of 13,000 travelers at multiple airports across the nation. Survey results revealed that 93% of travelers were satisfied with the passenger experience and 94% of the respondents were confident in TSA’s ability to keep air travel secure.
And I’m thinking, really? 93% of travelers were satisfied with the passenger experience and 94% of the respondents were confident in TSA’s ability to keep air travel secure?
Regardless of the pay increase I mentioned, I still read and hear about plenty of TSA officers who are, shall we say, less than pleasant. On top of that, people who have to go through the “regular” TSA queue can still easily be looking at a 30 to 45 minute queue at busier airports (and let’s not even get into during prime holiday season).
I could see 94% of respondents trusting the TSA’s ability to keep us secure. After all, despite comments about “security theater,” nothing has happened – no bombings, no hijackings – since 9/11. But 93% of their respondents were happy with their passenger experience?
I found a reference to the survey in question (apparently it’s the first one TSA has ever done where they’re sharing the results with the public), which included a link to the survey itself – click here to see it – but it’s admittedly difficult for a layman to understand.
Personally, I would LOVE to know what they asked respondents, WHO they asked (PreCheck vs 60-minute regular queue people?), what airports respondents were in (any in NYC, where the TSAOs tend to be brutal?), etc. However more information about the survey will be shared on TSA’s website at a later date.
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