TSA okays registered traveler

Virtually all travelers want to get through security faster, and those willing to undergo a background check, register their biometrics (like fingerprints), and pay a fee should be able to do so before too long - and do it at airports across the country.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has given the green light to proceed with its Registered Traveler (RT) program, an effort that has already worked well at Orlando International Airport (MCO).

The initiative allows registered travelers to use dedicated security lanes, dispense with some of the burdensome procedures required of other passengers, and bypass (for the most part) bothersome secondary screening.

The TSA says it is prepared for a Registered Traveler rollout at between ten and twenty United States aerodromes.

To work, the basic Registered Traveler model needs interoperability among airport locations, an open technological platform that facilitates competition, a central information management system, and “robust safeguards to protect personal privacy.” The template also relies heavily on the private sector to make the initiative work.

One company, which has already made the system work, and work well, is Verified Identity Pass. It operates Registered Traveler in Orlando, where it has enrolled 20,000 members. Verified Identity Pass hopes to start programs by June - perhaps earlier at San Jose (SJC), Indianapolis (IND), and Cincinnati (CVG). (See Clear sailing in Orlando)

Steven Brill, company founder and CEO, says: “We expect to be in a position with agreements and plans in hand to launch in at least eight more airports this summer and fall, with more to follow by the end of the year and beginning into the first quarter of 2007.”

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler

Comments

[David Soskin]

TIA suggests that the USA's share of international tourism has hit an all-time low dropping 35 points between 1992 and 2004, representing $286 billion in lost revenue.

For those of us who visit the USA regularly, it is not hard to understand why. Poorly trained and hostile security officials have made the lives
of law-abiding vistors unnecessarily miserable.

It is not just the never-ending lines and the consequent delays. It is the sheer unpleasantness of it all. Why cannot the Department of Homeland Security pick up a few tips from the British Airports Authority? The UK has been dealing with terrorism for more than three decades and Heathrow is probably, after Tel Aviv Ben Gurion, the most secure airport on the planet. Yet security officals do not scream at passengers and haul them over with reckless abandon. I am surprised and disappointed that more Americans do not press for a better system.

Will the RT program be open to (frequent) visitors - or is it just for American citizens?

[Oonagh Shiel, Editor, Cheap Flight News]

The Transportation Security Administration's Registered Traveler program is open to U.S. citizens, and permanent foreign nationals who possess a Green Card.

[David Soskin, CEO, Cheapflights]

The Registered Traveler Program is a fabulous idea. I quite understand that it is not open to those deemed by the USA as "aliens" such as visitors from the United Kingdom.

My question is this: what is the British Government doing to make the lives of British frequent travelers easier in Britain's airports?