Poll: 87 percent of frequent flyers unhappy with TSA

Eighty-seven percent of frequent flyers are unhappy with the performance of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), according to new poll released this week. 

The poll, conducted by Frequent Business Traveler Magazine and the websites FlyerTalk.com and ExpertFlyer.com, found 87 percent of frequent flyers said the TSA does a “fair or poor job” with airport security.

By comparison, only 10.2 percent of the survey’s respondents said TSA is doing a good job, and just 2.6 percent rated the agency’s performance excellent. 

{mosads}The disapproval figure is a one-percent increase over the TSA’s rating in the frequent flyer poll last year and the fourth year in a row a majority of passengers have expressed negative feelings about the agency to the travel groups’ pollsters. 

“This year’s survey results show that the TSA has a long way to go to build confidence in its mission,” Frequent Business Traveler Magazine editorial director Jonathan Spira said in a statement about the findings.  

“Our survey respondents traverse security checkpoints multiple times each month and are in an excellent position to render a verdict on this subject,” he continued. 

Forty-five percent of the poll’s respondents said they were dissatisfied with their airport security experience. Seventy-six percent said they had used TSA’s PreCheck trusted traveler program, where passengers volunteer information about themselves and pay an $85 fee in exchange for five years of expedited airport screening. 

Only 62 percent of the poll’s respondents were satisfactied with the PreCheck program, down from 80.3 percent in 2013.