Travellers faced extensive delays at security checkpoints across US airports on Sunday, with officials attributing the disruption to the ongoing government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Passengers at airports in Houston and New Orleans reported waits lasting several hours.
At William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, estimated wait times for standard security reached three hours early on Sunday evening, according to the Houston Airports website. The airport had previously warned on social media of higher-than-normal passenger numbers due to spring break. Throughout Sunday, the airport’s X account progressively urged travellers to arrive earlier, escalating from "early" to "3-4 hours" and eventually "4-5 hours" before flights, explicitly citing the partial government shutdown as the cause for extended screening times.
