DALLAS — It starts off as pocket change, but it adds up to a lot more than that.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says passengers leave behind tens of thousands of dollars at airport security checkpoints at DFW and Love Field.
"The majority of it is nickels and dimes and pennies," said Amy Williams, the federal security director at Love Field. "As [passengers] are hurrying to get ready to recompose and get to their flights a lot of times the loose change gets left behind."
So far in fiscal year 2024, Williams says TSA officers have collected more than $5,000 in loose change at Love Field -- up from just under $4,000 in the previous fiscal year.
At DFW Airport, the number is much higher. So far this year, TSA says it is collecting approximately $230 per day in change. In Fiscal Year 2023, it collected more than $57,000 that passengers left at the airport checkpoint.
"We don’t get to keep the change," Williams said. "It goes into the general fund."
Every year the TSA publishes a report detailing how much money passengers leave in the security line -- including an airport-by-airport break down of the numbers. Larger airports typically collect more money -- although Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas often punches above its weight in money left behind.
Williams says when officers find money, they have to put it in a lock box kept behind the security checkpoint. "They place the change in a bowl and they walk with the bowl above their head so that there's no confusion," she explained.
Some passengers said they were surprised to hear how much money people left behind.
"That’s a lot," said Charnese Evans, who was on her way from Dallas to Charlotte. "I would not have suspected that many Americans are carrying around loose change anymore."
Troy Dolling, who was headed on a bucket list trip to Vegas to see Garth Brooks perform stated, "That's amazing really because I don't carry change, all I carry is bills."
But despite the growing transition to cashless and credit cards only -- the forgotten nickels and dimes of flying show people use cold hard cash.
"A lot of people still do carry cash and change as is evident by the amounts we collect each year," Williams said.
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