Americans aren’t just grousing under their breath about long airport security lines—huge numbers are changing their travel behavior altogether, which is set to inflict billions in economic damage over the summer season, according to new research from the U.S. Travel Association.
A survey of 2,500 Americans found that of those planning plane trips between Memorial Day and Labor Day, 21.8 percent will either travel by other means or delay or cancel their trips because of saturation coverage of hours-long waits at airport security checkpoints.
60.3 percent of respondents said they would arrive at the airport earlier to cope with expected Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening logjams. Only 17.9 percent said they will not change their travel behavior at all.
The data indicates that millions of Americans will either skip planned spending on travel or will spend less . All told, the lost travel spending will total $4.3 billion for the three-month summer peak season—a figure that would have directly supported 37,500 additional domestic jobs.
“To put these figures in perspective, the problems at TSA security lines are costing our economy almost a billion and a half dollars in spending and more than 12,000 jobs every month,” said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow.
