For Better Airport Security, Privatize the TSA
In early March, I headed to New Orleans for a bachelor party (highly recommended but bring the Tums). While the three-day event had plenty of activities and side quests, the real adventure started on my way home. What should have been a routine airport experience turned into a full-blown travel disaster, courtesy of a government shutdown affecting Homeland Security. When I arrived at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, I saw a line that seemed to stretch for miles. At first, I thought it was just for those checking their bags and figured I was in the clear. I soon found out I was not. As I attempted to “cut” in line, the person behind me sternly told me that I had to go all the way to the back. I was incredulous. As I walked past everyone, the line never seemed to end, and in fact started to enter into the parking lot. At the far reaches of this human snake, a woman with flags was directing foot traffic like an airport crossing guard and politely pointed me to where the end of the line was, which was in the deepest corner of the parking lot with hundreds of people left to go. That’s when reality truly set in for me that I had a strong possibility of missing my flight, despite being in “dad-mode” and arriving at the airport two and half hours before my departure. The whole experience was a masterclass in everything that’s wrong with the TSA and why I believe it needs to be privatized immediately.
Congress created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in 2001 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, later transferring the agency to the newly established Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002. The attacks of 9/11 were obviously one of the worst security failures in American history, and it was clear that airport security at the time was inadequate to address evolving threats. However, allowing the federal government to establish a monopoly over airport security was a mistake that has not necessarily made Americans safer. Instead, we have simply been fortunate enough to avoid another attack on the scale of 9/11.
My experience in March highlighted several ways in which government control of the TSA may actually increase security risks rather than reduce them. While the TSA’s primary focus appears to be preventing another 9/11-style hijacking, the chaos created during the shutdown exposed travelers to an entirely different kind of threat. The line I stood in was at least 1000 people long, with passengers packed together in an open, unsecured area outside the normal screening perimeter. Airports do not conduct security screenings at their entrances, meaning anyone could have approached the crowd unchecked. A terrorist could have detonated a bomb or opened fire on the thousands of people stranded in line, creating a mass-casualty event before passengers ever reached TSA screening. Ironically, the very system designed to protect travelers had created an enormous soft target because TSA operations were disrupted during the shutdown.
Ultimately, airport security and airport operations are too critical to be left vulnerable to government dysfunction. If the TSA were privatized, the likelihood of a situation like the one I experienced in March would be greatly reduced. Individual airports or private security operators would be responsible for maintaining operations, meaning that if Congress failed to reach a funding agreement for the Department of Homeland Security, the entire nation’s air travel system would not be thrown into chaos. I deeply sympathize with TSA agents who were angry about missing paychecks during the shutdown and therefore reluctant to come to work. In many ways, that reaction was understandable. However, privatizing airport security could create more stable and reliable compensation structures while reducing the fragility that comes from relying entirely on federal funding and hoping there isn’t political gridlock.
If you are concerned that airport security is too important to privatize, it is worth noting that many of the world’s safest and most secure airports do not rely on a centralized, government-run security monopoly like the TSA. In fact, there is not a single American airport consistently ranked among the world’s most secure airports. Across much of Canada and Europe, airport security is handled through fully private or hybrid public-private systems that continue to operate effectively and safely. Given these international examples, it is hardly outlandish to believe that contracting airport security to private operators could work seamlessly in the United States as well.
In the end, I made my flight with only 10 minutes to spare before takeoff. Many others in New Orleans that day were not so fortunate. The experience reinforced a broader lesson that as political polarization and government dysfunction continue to worsen in this country, it becomes increasingly risky to place critical services entirely in the hands of the federal government. Privatizing the TSA is one obvious reform that could help make air travel in the United States both more secure and more reliable.
