Bulletin file photoThe entryway at the Redmond Airport.

Long lines at airport security checkpoints around the country have put the Transportation Security Administration in the spotlight, triggering a hiring blitz, congressional hearings and the removal of the head of the agency’s security division.

Some of the worst delays were at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where waits stretched to more than an hour and a half earlier this month, causing hundreds of travelers to miss their flights.

Such is not the case locally.

At the Redmond Airport, the wait — from the moment a traveler enters the security line to the moment he exits into the secure departures terminal — is roughly three to five minutes, according to Airport Manager Zachary Bass.

“That’s an average,” clarified Bass. “In the morning when there’s three or four flights leaving it gets a little longer, but still no more than about 10 minutes.”

Despite the speedy security lines, Redmond is adding more TSA personnel.

Bass said around the first of the year, TSA reclassified the Redmond Airport to account for its growing passenger numbers.

In the first four months of this year, Redmond Airport handled 191,435 inbound and outbound passengers, a 16 percent increase over the same time period a year earlier.

With the new classification comes additional funding to beef up the airport’s security screening.

The Redmond TSA office interviewed applicants a few weeks ago, Bass said, and is aiming to add another six to eight part-time security officers. The TSA hiring process is lengthy, he said, and the new hires most likely won’t be on the job until late this year.

Bass said despite the problems at other airports, travelers out of Redmond can still expect a relatively painless trip through the security checkpoint.

“I read all that stuff about the other airports, and I don’t even worry about that at all,” he said. “It’s not even on my radar as an issue.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com