New Trusted Travelller System For Frequent Flyers

The Transportation Security Administration is moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to airport screening. John S. Pistole, TSA administrator, is intent on gradually changing the current system, which could mean a future where some passengers go through a kind of “first-class” security procedure. Imagine this: no frisking, no scanners and no fussing about with your laptop.

Tired of having to take their shoes off or put their carry-on liquids in 3.4 ounce bottles and clear plastic bags, some passengers are clamoring for change. What the TSA hasn’t said is whether it would consider asking passengers to pay for a more streamlined experience. (The TSA declined to comment on that.)

However, the TSA tells Pay Dirt that it’s developing additional ways to further incorporate “identity-based security” into its procedures to strengthen security on board commercial aircraft, while improving the screening experience, but in a way that terrorists can’t game the system. Last month, Pistole gave a speech entitled “Transportation Security Ten Years After 9/11 And Ten Years From Now,” in which he said the agency was making good progress in developing a “truly risk-based, intelligence-driven organization in every way” to direct resources at higher-risk passengers.

It’s news that regular travellers fed up with removing their shoes and passing through body scanners when going through airport security have been waiting years to hear. Officials are looking at letting ‘trusted travellers’ keep on their shoes, leave laptops in bags and avoid body scanners when they fly from airports in the U.S. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) concept would be one of the biggest airport changes since stricter rules were brought in after 9/11.

He wants to speed the plough for the 628 million airline passengers screened per year: “I believe what we’re working on will provide better security by more effectively deploying our resources, while also improving passengers’ travel experiences by potentially streamlining the screening experience for many people,” he said.

In the aftermath of the death of Osama bin Laden, Pistole also spoke to Thursday’s The Wall Street Journal about “trusted travelers” being allowed to keep their shoes and even avoid body scanners by using their frequent-flier data. “We think we can improve the process and focus more on people we know nothing about,” he said.

James Carafano, security consultant at the conservative Heritage Foundation think-tank, says he too would like streamlined airport security: “Is the inconvenience and the cost really worth it? No. What really makes everyone safe is getting the terrorist before they get near the airplane. I’d pay $10, $20, even $50 to avoid it.”

It plans to take data from airline frequent-flyer programmes and give ‘trusted travellers’ a special status on their boarding pass bar-codes, reported the Wall Street Journal. But exceptions would include if someone on the plane is on the government’s watch-list of suspect terrorists or if the flight is seen as high-risk.

An initial programme to give separate screening without body scanners or pat-downs will begin this summer and tests at other airports will follow. Former FBI deputy director and counterterrorism expert Mr Pistole is confident his programme will improve security without unnecessary risk. He said it will be based on travel history, therefore taking time for new frequent-flyer members to get up to ‘trusted traveller’ status. Only 450 U.S. citizens are on the no-fly list and 6,000 are on the watch list. These were numbers previously kept secret, but Mr Healy said the lists are now operating more efficiently and he wants to dispel myths and build confidence.

Mr Pistole looks at a daily report of flyers on the watch list, and when several passengers from it were on one flight he got air marshals moved onto the aircraft. The TSA said the number of people who receive secondary searches has remained constant at about three per cent. ‘We do want to do something that acknowledges that virtually everyone who travels is not a terrorist,’ Mr Pistole told the Wall Street Journal. The announcement comes after security was stepped up across the U.S. as officials warned of 'enhanced potential' for violence following Osama Bin Laden's death. It also follows a number of concerns over intrusive pat-down searches, after former Miss USA Susie Castillo, 31, complained she was ‘violated' by a female TSA agent.