TSA services will return to McKellar-Sipes, simplifying the travel process

JACKSON, Tenn. — A major change is coming to the Hub City’s airport.

“As we begin to see the changes and things that are going to happen in our community, this is probably one of the first positive major changes that we have seen and that we will see,” said Steve Smith, executive director of the Jackson-Madison County Airport Authority.

The Jackson-Madison County Airport Authority announced that after 13 years, the McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport will soon have a TSA service, changing the current dynamic from traveling in multiple steps….

“When you leave here and get there, and you’ve got another ticket, it could take two hours or two and a half hours to make the changeover, to get from signature to get over to the gate, to get through TSA, to get your luggage, to get it screened, to get it all put away, and sometimes by that time you miss your connection,” Smith said.

…To doing it all in one step.

“You’ll be screened right here in Jackson, your luggage will be on the airplane, your ticket will say you’re going to wherever your final destination is,” said Smith.

Smith says McKellar-Sipes will go through several renovations.

“Some access control that were still, 1999 to 2000 model access controls, our camera system while it’s still working and recording, it doesn’t have the abilities now that most of these digital camera systems have,” Smith said.

He also says the manpower should be available.

“A lot of the working equipment that’s being used in some of the majors are now being put in storage, so I think the equipment will be available,” Smith said. “Whether or not we can get personnel, as close as we are to Memphis, I would imagine that they’ll put somebody in a bus and run them over.”

Smith says the process of bringing TSA to the Hub City should begin in the upcoming weeks.

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