Over the past month, about 40,000 domestic U.S. travelers have been allowed to breeze through security checkpoints with their shoes and jackets on, toiletries and laptops intact. They are part of the test phase of a voluntary TSA program called PreCheck meant to expedite travel for passengers who have been – as the program name implies – vetted in advance. This identity verification pilot program is underway at four airports: Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas and Miami.
Travelers provide in advance application personal information in exchange for the possibility of expedited travel. The lucky participants are gathered from an elite group of very frequent fliers on American and Delta, along with members of the existing trusted traveler programs Global Entry, Sentri and Nexus. Over a million people are enrolled in the trusted traveler programs run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Passengers who receive a PreCheck boarding pass prior to departure use separate security lanes specifically dedicated to the program, one at each of the four airports.
TSA head John Pistole reported to the Senate Homeland Security committee last Thursday on this and other security related program progress. You may not be surprised to learn that the feedback from customers in the Precheck program has been very positive. A colleague of mine who is in the program described the ease with which he recently flew through screening. You really got to keep your shoes on? Yup. Wow.
From both a security and throughput perspective, it makes obvious sense to quickly push through the non-threatening voyagers in order to spend more time on people who may actually pose a threat or about whom screeners and security need more info to make an informed opinion. So I am holding my breath that this TSA program grows into something permanent and includes less frequent fliers such as myself, at more airports and on more airlines. PreCheck is a step in the right direction.
