With the arrival (and departure) of Memorial Day, summer is unofficially here, marking the time to speak briefly about another kind of disturbing arrival and departure. I’m talking about airports, which are experiencing a kind of institutional chaos these days.

Social media accounts as well as the airlines tell us that many thousands of ticketed passengers have missed their flights, and airlines have endured hundreds of delays, because of extraordinarily lengthy delays at some large-city airport security lines. The blame is usually laid at the feet of the TSA for slowing the process of making certain that passengers are safely placed on their flights, even if the delays ensure that some of them will never get to their flights.

And yes, the TSA is partly responsible. It is beset with seemingly inept management at the top. But let’s take note of who else shares in that blame, starting with the do-nothing, Republican-dominated Congress which has sliced funding for the TSA and guaranteed that it will be short-staffed. Those are both devastating problems which are feeding the airport issues.

But let’s not ignore the airlines, who have spent a lot of their marketing money making certain he TSA gets all the blame. Nope. Some of these problems arose in the wake of the airlines charging fees — and ever-rising fees — for passengers wanting to check baggage. Given a choice between paying up to $50 for one bag checked, passengers have not surprisingly decided to carry on everything they possible can. The result: far more work monitoring baggage that slows the operation of the TSA security lines.

And we cannot ignore the role of passengers who arrive at airports either woefully ignorant of TSA guidelines or so careless and stupid as not to follow them. We’ve all seen them in action: hey forget to empty their pockets, or forget the extra liquids, or even try to bring guns and knives on board. These people are costing others time and money, and their role in the chaos must not be neglected. (More of them should also sign up for pre-check lines.)

It all adds up to … well, chaos. And with summer passenger traffic expected to hit record levels, the problems likely are going to get worse. Now, TSA says it is bringing on more workers, and that’s good, although it seems just a drop in an awfully big bucket. It would help more if the greedy, uncaring airlines drop their checked baggage fees, at least for the summer months. And finally if flyers would familiarize them in advance with what they can and can’t carry and how to negotiate the security lines, we’d all be ahead a bit.

And the are admittedly short-term solutions, but let’s try to get to the fall as best we can. I’m not naive enough to believe all passengers will do that. And I’m especially not naive enough to believe the airlines will do anything that benefits customers. My recommendation? Drive or make the train if at all possible.

I know, I know. You;re flying to Europe, and what are you going to do? I’d suggest that for every day you’ll spend in Europe add one hour to your projected wait in the TSA lines. And have a fun summer.