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."

Airport wait times could ease

A top transportation official is working on shortening lines at Georgia's main airport. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world. The airport has asked for the Transportation Security Administration to create 10 additional security lanes by midsummer.

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.