Airlines for America predicates there will be 45.2 million people across the nation flying for the holiday season, with 715,000 fliers through Kansas City International Airport. Knowing what to pack will help you get through the TSA checkpoints and onto your flight without any delays to you or others.
“My husband has donated two or three knives because he’s always carried one from the time he was a little kid,” said Cindy Gress from Lawrence.
A spokesperson for the TSA tells 41 Action News the most common things people try to get past the checkpoint is toiletries, including things like hairspray or shaving gel. However, they have also seen loaded guns, batons, and grandees. Each time an illegal item is spotted, it slows down the TSA line.
"Each individual item is really like another passenger cause we are going to re-screen them and over an extended period of time when it’s hours into the day its like a title wave in terms of the processing time for passengers,” said TSA regional spokesperson Mark Howell.
You do have the option of getting rid of the item by checking it in your bag, placing it in your car, or mailing it to yourself. However, you will have to go through the TSA checkpoint again.
If you plan on flying with gifts, it may be best to wait on wrapping them.
“If we have to do a secondary screening on the item when you come through the checkpoint we are going to have to unwrap it,” said Howell.
Howell recommends using bags for your gifts instead of wrapping them.
For more information on what you can and cannot bring on your flight, click here.
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Ali Hoxie can be reached at ali.hoxie@kshb.com
