Source: Bloomberg
Author: Jeff Plungis

U.S. Customs and Border Protection staffing shortages are leaving arriving international travelers standing in line for nearly five hours at the busiest airports, according to a travel industry report.

Peak wait times reached a high of 4.5 hours at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airportin December 2012. At Miami in April 2013, the peak wait times were 4.7 hours.

News of these lines may make overseas visitors who could spend as much as $95 billion during the next five years think twice about coming, said Roger Dow, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Travel Association, a Washington-based group representing hotels, rental-car companies, and local convention and visitor bureaus.

“Far too many of these valued customers spent the first hours of their trip waiting in line at U.S. air ports of entry,” Dow said in a statement. “Long lines and wait times that many experience during entry are deterring millions of potential visitors.”

Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson in July called customs delays in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago an “embarrassment” compared with comparable cities in Europe, China or Japan.

Delta, which earned 43 percent of its second-quarter mainline passenger revenue on international flights, recently opened a $1.4 billion terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, in part to improve the experience for foreign travelers.

Customs officials have blamed the lines on automatic cuts to the agency’s budget.

Sequester Blamed

The longest peak wait times at three other major international airports, according to agency data analyzed by the travel group, were 3.8 hours at Chicago O’Hare in November 2012, 3.3 hours atLos Angeles International Airport in March 2013, and 2.9 hours at Washington Dulles International Airport in April 2013.

U.S. Travel said it analyzed limited, nonpublic information provided by Customs on average and peak wait times from June 2012 through May 2013. Average wait times were often less than 30 minutes. The longest ranged from 90 minutes to more than four hours, the group said.

There were 213.1 million long-haul international travelers arriving in the U.S. in 2010, up from 151.7 million in 2000, according to the study. The number is expected to reach 320.8 million in 2020.

Customs needs 3,500 more officers to fill empty lanes and reduce peak wait times by 50 percent, the group said.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned earlier this year that budget cuts would reduce overtime and cause delays at international airports.

The U.S. travel industry grew 7.8 percent in 2012 and foreign-visitor revenue represents 12 percent of U.S. export growth, according to the travel association.

Customs delays were cited in a March study by U.S. Travel as putting $95 billion of economic activity and 518,900 jobs at risk.