Extra long wait times at the airport have caused serious problems for both travelers and the airlines.

The problem has been so bad that it’s caused a couple of airlines to spend millions of dollars to help speed things up.

• American Airlines is spending $4 million to speed up lines at the airports. I also wrote about 70,000 reasons why AA is spending $4 million at airports.
• Delta Airlines is spending $5 million to speed up lines at the airport.

Now the TSA chief says that progress is being made on shortening lines, according to Yahoo.

The screening line waits times have shortened since this spring. Over Memorial Day weekend, (at US airports) 99% of passengers waited less than 30 minutes and 93% waited less than 15 minutes at regular security lines.

TSA Precheck approved passengers did a whole lot better with 93% waiting less than 5 minutes.

These stats were presented to a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by the TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger.

So what’s causing security lines to speed up? It’s simple math. The TSA has added security lanes and staffing during peak times “especially at seven of the nation’s busiest airports: John F. Kennedy in New York, Newark in New Jersey, O’Hare in Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles.”

The TSA is considering adding automated screening technology at airports which can speed up lines by up to 30%. Delta helped pay for the installation of the technology in two lanes in Atlanta last month. It’s been so successful that the TSA now has a special team which will talk to other airlines and airports about installing the system.

It’s nice to see airlines helping to cover the costs to speed up the security lines but in the end, I hope that the government doesn’t add more taxes onto our airline tickets to cover these costs to add automated screening technology.

Have you experienced extremely long wait times at US airports recently? If so, what’s the longest you’ve had to wait?

Find out more from Yahoo here.