'Very unusual': Lines at Sea-Tac Airport stretch into parking garage

Officials at Sea-Tac Airport say they’re looking into the cause of major security checkpoint delays that recently emerged.

Twitter erupted with videos and photos of seemingly endless lines stretching into the airport's parking garage over the weekend.

Lisa Jensen was one of those people. She came to Seattle from the San Francisco Bay area for a Husky game and was heading back home.

“I've traveled abroad," Jensen said. "I've never seen anything, anywhere like this. Even at JFK during Christmas time.”

Jensen said it took her almost four hours to get through security. She and other passengers realized after a few hours they would miss their flights altogether.

Traveler Carolyn Drake said there was a lot of confusion around the airport. She waited over 90 minutes just to get through security, and barely caught her flight to Delaware.

“It was just crazy," she said. "We showed up two hours early for a flight and just immediately were taken to the garage."

Sea-Tac is encouraging general screening passengers to use a virtual queuing system called SEA Spot Saver to help combat long wait times. It's a reservation program for TSA screening for those flying out of Seattle.

A spokesperson for the Port of Seattle told KUOW that the long lines on Saturday were "very unusual" and that the airport had some of its highest volumes since the start of the pandemic. Volumes were back to normal by Sunday afternoon, they said.