Recent news out of some of the nation’s major airports has been grim, with accounts of hours-long waits at screening checkpoints and missed flights.

Upheaval over poor security and alleged mismanagement inside the Transportation Security Administration led to the ouster Monday of the agency’s head of security. On Wednesday, a congressional committee grilled the TSA’s top administrator.

Given the troubles, how concerned should travelers be about flying in and out of Kansas City International Airport this busy holiday weekend?

Not very, if Wednesday morning’s flight rush was any indication. It was difficult to find lines — even the longest at an American Airlines gate, at 5:30 a.m., stretching 100 feet down the corridor of Terminal C — that weren’t moving smoothly, or to find a passenger with significant concerns.

“I’ve never had any problems flying out of Kansas City,” said Brent Boyd, 48, who was waiting in a security line of fewer than five people to board a 7:30 a.m. Southwest Airlines flight home to Los Angeles.

“Certainly I’ve seen the news on national broadcasts around long lines in places like Chicago and L.A. … Didn’t have any major issues (even in Los Angeles),” he said. “I’m taking early-morning flights, that seems to help, and just making sure I’m there early.”

Boyd called KCI “unique” among the airports he typically uses because the security check areas are directly outside the departure gates.

“It seems to be a lot more efficient, at least for the passengers,” he said.

KCI also is one of 22 airports across the country where security is handled not by government agents but by a private company.

Summer and holiday traveler loads are always heavier than normal. Lines tend to get longer with more children and families.

The Kansas City Aviation Department estimates that from Thursday through Tuesday, about 104,000 passengers will fly out of KCI, with an additional 104,000 flying in.

Nine major airlines call KCI home, and nearly all are flying more flights this year than last.

“Airlines are adding new flights, airlines are flying bigger airplanes, and the load (filling more seats) is greater. All of that makes airports busier,” said Justin Meyer, the Aviation Department’s deputy director of aviation marketing and air services development.

TSA testimony

In Washington, TSA administrator Peter Neffenger told the House Committee on Homeland Security that the TSA will add 768 new screeners by mid-June.

Most of the new screeners will be sent to the nation’s busiest airports in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and other hubs, he said.

The TSA also has increased the use of overtime in Chicago and other major airports, converted some part-time workers to full-time status and increased the use of bomb-sniffing dogs to help with security lines, Neffenger said.

And it is launching an incident command center that will track daily screening operations and shift officers, canine units and other resources to shorten lines at the busiest times, he said. The group includes officials from major airlines and industry associations.

“We have a challenge this summer, which we are aggressively meeting head-on,” Neffenger told the committee.

Rep. Michael McCaul, the panel’s chairman and a Texas Republican, was unconvinced. Congress has granted a request by the TSA to reallocate $34 million to hire more officers and pay overtime, yet wait times are growing, he said.

“The American people are angry and frustrated as we head into the busiest travel season of the year, starting this Memorial Day weekend,” McCaul said. “They deserve answers.”

The crisis “didn’t just come out of nowhere,” he said. “Airports and airlines have been sounding the alarm for months. Wait times are not soaring simply because security is that much tighter. It’s because the TSA bureaucracy has gotten weaker.”

Neffenger also pointed to lower-than-expected enrollment in the government’s PreCheck program, which expedites screening for those who submit to a background check and pay an $85 fee.

In addition, airline fees for checked bags have boosted the volume of carry-on bags, putting extra pressure on screeners. About four times as many bags are brought through TSA checkpoints as are checked at the ticket counter or curb, Neffenger said.

Another factor: The TSA tightened security procedures after federal auditors managed to get fake bombs and weapons past screeners 95 percent of the time in 70 covert tests.

The TSA expects to screen 740 million passengers this year, a 15 percent increase from 2013. That increase comes amid a 12 percent drop in the TSA’s workforce that has reduced the number of screeners to about 42,000 at 440 airports nationwide. The 768 screeners to be hired next month will boost the number of inspectors by less than 2 percent.

McCaul pressed Neffenger about the abrupt ouster of Kelly Hoggan, the agency’s top security official. Hoggan was replaced by Darby LaJoye, a former federal security director in Los Angeles and New York.

Neffenger declined to explain why he removed Hoggan, saying only that “I needed a new direction going forward.” Hoggan, who received more than $90,000 in bonuses in 2013-14, remains at the agency on paid administrative leave.

Long lines have been afflicting airports since early spring, but the issue came to a head in recent weeks when hundreds of passengers in Chicago missed flights because of lengthy checkpoint waits.

Despite those problems, there are signs of improvement, Neffenger said.

The agency has installed a new management team in charge of screening operations at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after an incident in which 450 passengers were stranded overnight because of long security lines. TSA also has increased the use of overtime and made other changes that appear to be working. The longest wait time Tuesday at O’Hare was about 15 minutes, he said.

American and United say they are spending $4 million each to bring in contract employees who can take over nonscreening chores such as handling bins and managing lines, freeing up TSA agents to focus on screening. Delta Air Lines will spend at least $3 million and is redesigning two checkpoint lanes at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to speed things up before Memorial Day.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who oversees the TSA, has asked airlines to temporarily reduce or eliminate fees for checked bags to speed up inspections at checkpoints. Airlines have balked at the suggestion, saying the TSA is to blame for the long lines.

Besides reducing fees, airlines should enforce rules limiting carry-ons to one bag plus one small personal item, Neffenger said.

“Every additional bag coming through the checkpoint is a potential slowdown,” he said.

At KCI, security does not rely on government workers. Instead, KCI was one of the first commercial airports nationwide to be part of the TSA’s screening partnership program. Security at KCI is subcontracted out and handled by a private company.

Akal Security Inc., based in Española, N.M., took over security at KCI in 2015 under a five-year, $108 million contract. Before Akal, Cleveland-based FirstLine Transportation Security Inc. had handled KCI’s security screening operations since the fall of 2002.

But even if larger airports moved to switch to private screeners, they could not do so in time to handle the increased summer travel.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the committee, cautioned against what he said would be a return to the pre-Sept. 11 privatization model, whose failure to screen hijackers led to the creation of the TSA.

“Congress and TSA must resist Band-Aid fixes to complicated and well-understood aviation security challenges,” he said. “Patching and plugging holes are not answers.”

‘Much better’ at KCI

Monica McCarthy, 24, was boarding a flight Wednesday at KCI for Philadelphia.

“I’ve been in other airports. I’ve lived in other cities,” she said. “This is fairly easy compared to other places I’ve lived.”

Kansas City officials continue to contemplate a $1 billion proposed replacement for KCI’s 43-year-old horseshoe-shaped terminals. A new terminal would have more and larger gates and more centralized security and check-in.

Keith Glasch, a weekly business traveler, said that when he moved to Kansas City from Dallas seven months ago, he looked upon KCI as rather “hokey.” But he said that, in the interim and as a frequent flier, he has come to appreciate its ease, including the waits in line.

“It’s not bad. Here it’s much better than most airports,” Glasch said, although he also thinks the recent criticism of lines at other airports has been exaggerated.

His take is that airports are like other businesses. Some are properly managed, with TSA employees working hard, and others are not. His experience at O’Hare has been fine, but he described lines at Chicago’s Midway International Airport as “terrible.”

“LaGuardia (in New York) is a pretty big airport,” he said. “I went through there yesterday, and there were no problems. I literally walked right through.”