RDM sees long TSA lines, so be 2 hours early

The Redmond Airport expects to double in size within the next 20 years. Officials have plans to accommodate that growth, but at least for now, you’ll have to change some of your habits, too.

If your flight is leaving between 5 and 7 a.m., officials say you should arrive at the airport at least two hours early.

In those two hours, nine different flights leave from Roberts Field. Plus, the planes are getting bigger, the airport is adding more flights, and Central Oregon is in the middle of a continued population boom.

Despite all of that, the airport only has two Transportation Security Administration security checkpoint lines. Trying to push more people through that same small space slows everyone down.

Afternoon flights aren’t facing the same time constraints, because they’re spaced out more. Officials say you can still plan to get to the airport about 90 minutes ahead of time at that time of day.

One of the airport’s goals is to install a third TSA line. For that to happen, the airport has to prove it really, truly needs that third lane.

Airport Director Zachary Bass said Friday, “We would love to see a third lane, especially for those rushes. Once we meet the TSA metrics, then we will be pursuing that pretty heavily to put that third lane in as soon as we can.”

Right now, the airport’s security lines actually process passengers about 15 percent faster than what’s expected.

TSA standards expect 600 people to get through two security lanes in two hours. The Redmond Airport sometimes processes about 700 people in that same amount of time.

The problem is, since morning flights are so bunched together and afternoon flights are not, those numbers don’t hold out throughout the day.

Officials are planning for the future, though. Bass said a third lane could happen in the next three or four years: ” We’re projected to grow pretty heavily over the next 20 years, and what that means is the infrastructure on our facilities and infrastructure have to grow with us.”