Atlanta airport flyers, staff celebrate freedom — from travel headaches

But in Atlanta, airport staff and travelers alike reported little difficulty, with TSA security wait times ranging from seven to 15 minutes around 3 p.m.

“It was nothing out of the ordinary,” said Amanda Watson, a security supervisor at Hartsfield-Jackson. “That was definitely surprising for a Fourth of July weekend.”

Credit: Gray Mollenkamp

Credit: Gray Mollenkamp

Watson said she saw larger crowds during the weekends of Father’s Day and Juneteenth.

“Now those days were hectic,” she said. “It was backed up every which way.”

As for the airport’s calm nature, Watson credited her security staff.

“Due to the team that we have had in the last week, it’s been great,” she said. “We were able to keep the flow going. That’s why it looks so clear.”

In a statement, a Hartsfield-Jackson spokesperson said: “Despite the usual heavier-than-normal holiday passenger volume, there have been no challenges to operations.”

Before the holiday, the American Automobile Association predicted road travel to be more popular than flying, with 61.6 million expected to drive and 5.84 million to fly to their Independence Day destinations.

Among the travelers who experienced few issues was Steve Thompson, who had just arrived from Cincinnati.

The McDonough native flew Frontier on Thursday and made it through security in under 10 minutes.

“It was easy, man,” Thompson said. “There was nothing to it.”

Credit: Gray Mollenkamp

Credit: Gray Mollenkamp

Later in the afternoon, Diallo headed back to the airport in his taxi cab in hopes of picking up a second rider.

“It’s been going one by one,” said Diallo, who’s worked at Hartsfield-Jackson for over 20 years. “We’ll see what we can do.”