Testing a security prescreening system
For some, the airport screening process could be expedited. Credit: Uli Seit, 2011
The Transportation Security Administration will test a program to prescreen a small group of select air travelers who volunteer more personal information about themselves so they can be vetted to get faster screening at airport checkpoints.
The new program represents the Obama administration's first attempt at a more risk-based, intelligence-driven passenger screening program that could respond to travelers' complaints that the government is not using common sense when it screens all passengers at airports in the same manner.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM The test program is expected to begin sometime this fall. It applies only to a small number of frequent travelers who are U.S. citizens and are enrolled in Delta Air Lines' and American Airlines' frequent-flier programs or three other government-trusted traveler programs -- known as Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI -- involving people who travel regularly through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County, Miami International and Dallas-Fort Worth International airports.
The TSA said it anticipates that 5,000-8,000 travelers will participate.
HOW IT WORKS For security reasons, the TSA will not say what specific screening measures participating travelers might avoid at airports.
But the program in no way exempts the travelers from any security measure, the agency said, including existing prescreening for all passengers.
Currently, these travelers must provide their full names as they appear on their government identifications, as well as their birth dates and gender. This allows the government to compare passenger manifests with government databases to spot possible terrorists before they board a plane, and in some cases before they arrive at the airport.
Frequent-flier programs collect more information. Delta's, for instance, gathers the traveler's home and email addresses or phone number, and preferred language. The airlines and the Customs and Border Protection agency will contact eligible travelers to ask them whether they would participate in the program, the TSA said. If the traveler agrees, information the traveler provided to the airline through the frequent-flier program would be shared with the government for enhanced security vetting.
The agency plans to eventually expand the test program to United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, US Airways, and Alaska and Hawaiian airlines at other airports.
