Verified Identity Pass and British Airways today said they will launch the Clear Registered Traveler program at John F. Kennedy International Airport's Terminal 7 this fall for North American customers. The deal represents the first partnership between an airline and a Registered Traveler operator, while marking Verified Identity Pass's foray into the New York market.
While the terminal is home base to British Airways operations in New York, it also serves other airlines, including Air Canada, All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Iberia Airlines, Icelandair, Qantas, United Airlines and US Airways. VIP founder and CEO Steven Brill said Registered Traveler enrollees could use the expedited security screening process for all carriers in the terminal, while the card also would be interoperable with other Registered Travel programs to be launched in the United States.
Brill expects BA's JFK program—as well as previously signed airports in Cincinnati, San Jose and Indianapolis—to go live this fall, pending a final round of Transportation Security Administration approvals. "We will start enrollments in September and the lanes will be open, if not the last week in September, then the beginning of October," Brill said.
"TSA has done a lot more than anyone has given them credit for," Brill said. "They have some final paperwork to do, some stuff they have to file in the Federal Register, and it's just sort of stuck in the bureaucracy there. As soon as they do that, we can begin the online enrollment process. We expect to take enrollments for Kennedy, as well as Cincinnati, San Jose and Indianapolis within the next week to ten days."
TSA initially intended the program to go live nationwide on June 20, but then capped the number of airports that will launch this year at 20. TSA said the program this year would be in pilot mode, through which rules for privately run operators and airports will be refined for a full, nationwide rollout, now slated for next year.
A handful of airports are poised to launch the program, while others have declined the idea outright
(BTN, June 19). "Denver put out an RFP, they just haven't announced their selection. Los Angeles voted to put out an RFP the first week in September and TSA has said publicly that more than 20 airports said they want to be in the first batch. You should see a lot of rollouts in the next six months," Brill said.