Congressman bids to keep guns out of Atlanta airport

The chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee wants the federal government to continue a gun-free designation for Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Some Georgia lawmakers are at odds with the airport after a state law took effect July 1st allowing licensed gun owners to carry guns in public places like public transportation. The city of Atlanta and airport officials have said the law does not apply to the airport, which is under city authority. Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson wrote to the Transportation Security Administration this week that, "It is my understanding that federal law prohibits individuals from carrying firearms in all areas of an airport and that TSA has the authority to enforce these restrictions."

Three former Atlanta airport employees found guilty in federal court

Two former employees of the Transportation Security Administration and a former Delta Air Lines employee assigned to Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson airport have pleaded guilty in federal court to involvement in a drug-smuggling operation.

The former Delta employee, 42-year-old Leslie Adgar, and one of the former TSA workers, 44-year-old Jon Patton, plead guilty Wednesday to conspiring to distribute cocaine and heroin.

The other former TSA worker, 24-year-old Andre Mays, pleaded guilty to entering a secure airport area in violation of screening requirements.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 17. Adgar and Patton face a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Patton could receive up to one year in prison.

Atlanta airport security ready for travel crush

The holiday period starts tomorrow, and Atlanta airport security officials say they’ll be fully-staffed to handle the crush of travelers.

The 12-day holiday travel period could see record numbers of flyers using Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airport. Airport officials say the Transportation Security Administration is not equipped to handle the load of passengers.

TSA spokesman Jon Allen disagrees. He says it will be “all hands on deck” with part-timers added for this period.

"We actually did some adjustments to our scheduling that went into effect a couple of months ago…to deploy staff at different times, in order to try to better meet those peak travel demand times”.

Security wait-times last weekend were well-above the airport’s target of 15-20 minutes.

TSA does plan to cut 50 full-timers from its Atlanta-operations, down to a regular number of 850.

Hartsfield Airport Expects 1.3 million

The nation's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson International, is expecting 1.3 million people to pass through its door's this Labor Day weekend. That is an estimated six percent increase in traffic from last year’s Labor Day holiday.

The Transportation Security Administration has sent extra workers; every security lane in the airport is open.

Airport official, Herschel Grangent, told GPB news that the goal is for travelers to have to wait no more than 30-minutes in line, even during peak hours.

"That’s the goal: to keep everybody happy, keep everybody moving and getting to their planes on time," Grangent said.

Almost 250,000 people are expected at the airport per day. The heaviest travel is expected to be on Friday.