Ben Mutzabaugh

USA TODAY

The clamor over long airport security lines is growing and may get even louder as the busy summer travel season looms just weeks away.

The story has been building for months, with airports and airlines increasingly sounding the alarm about the headaches awaiting travelers trying to make their flights. Now, headlines about nightmarish security lines are in the news again Monday.

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From Atlanta to Chicago to Phoenix to Alaska – and nearly every place in between – stories are pouring in about long waits and other problems at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.

Passenger numbers are approaching record numbers in the U.S., which has dovetailed with a 10% reduction of screening personnel. That was expected to be offset by travelers signing up for the expedited PreCheck screening program, but the number of fliers registering has fallen far short of expectations. All that's left passengers standing in hours-long lines at a growing number of U.S. airports. The TSA says it's taking measures to mitigate the woes, but has nonetheless warned a difficult summer may lie ahead before a significant improvement is felt.

In Chicago, both of the city’s major airports now appear to be caught up in the mess.

At Chicago Midway, a flier’s video showing an agonizingly long Thursday line at the checkpoint there has gone viral, racking up more than 2.1 million views since it was posted.

"I got to the end, (and) I was like, holy (expletive), people would probably like to see this," Sean Hoffman says about his video in a Monday story in the Chicago Tribune.

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Hoffman says he barely made his 7:50 p.m. flight, despite arriving nearly 3 hours early.

"People were missing their flights," he tells the Tribune. "I could see some panicked people who had to be somewhere."

It may have been even worse across town at Chicago’s O’Hare airport – the USA’s second-busiest. American Airlines says it rolled out cots on Sunday night because about 450 of its passengers missed their evening flights after getting stuck in long TSA queues.

"Got here two and a half hours before my flight and security took two to three (hours) to get through," Kevin Revis, a stranded traveler, tells ABC 7 of Chicago.

Things hadn't improved much by Monday morning, according to ABC 7. The station says “video shot at 5 a.m. Monday shows hundreds of passengers slowly making their way through an hours-long security line in Terminal 3 at O'Hare.”

Airport officials were advising fliers "at least" 2 hours ahead of flights at peak travel times, according to WGN TV of Chicago.

In Atlanta -- home to the world's busiest airport -- officials were saying passengers may want to get there up to three hours early, according to WSB-TV of Atlanta.

Monday morning's security waits grew to at least an hour, though some fliers told WSB their queues were even longer. "Delta and airport officials passed out snacks and water to those waiting in the lines Monday morning," WSB says in its report. Lines eased by 9:30 a.m., but officials warn that very long lines are likely to be regular occurrences during peak periods until the TSA's staffing issues are addressed.

The queues in Atlanta became even worse after the airport temporarily closed one of its Terminal South security checkpoints earlier this month in a desperate effort to redesign the TSA lines in the hopes of speeding up the process. That redesigned checkpoint is slated to reopen next week, but it's unclear how much of a dent that will have on peak-period wait times. They've grown so long that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published a "Survival guide for those long Atlanta airport lines."

Officials at the busy Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport warned they might boot the TSA in favor of a federally approved private force. That's after a Thursday glitch caused more than 3,000 bags to miss flights out of Phoenix.

Deborah Ostreicher, the city's assistant aviation director, said Thursday's chaos at Phoenix Sky Harbor International is the latest in a growing list of frustrations with the Transportation Security Administration that could have the airport looking at other options.

"One of those options is to utilize a contractor to provide security as some other airports have done," Ostreicher says in a statement to The Associated Press, echoing threats made recently by the Atlanta and Seattle airports.

AP notes a similar glitch also affected fliers in Ketchikan, Alaska, beginning on the same day. That snafu led to officials at that small airport to warn fliers to arrive "at least three hours early" until the problem is fixed, according to AP. It was hoped that would be by Tuesday.

Against all that, industry trade group Airlines for America (A4A) has launched the iHateTheWait.com website. The site asks fliers to post photos of the long lines on social media along with the hashtag #iHateTheWait.

“Presumably this will make Congress more aware of the problem — and let fellow travelers know what they're in for when they get to the airport,” AP explains of A4A’s goal.

A4A spokeswoman Jean Medina says the campaign is "raising awareness of the issue and serving as crowd-sourced (wait time) information."

This post includes material from The Associated Press.

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