Airlines Move To Support ID Cards For Trusted Travelers

Airline proponents of a Trusted Traveler program by next month officially will propose to the Transportation Security Administration a test of an identification program for airline employees, and, if successful, then will propose a rollout of the program to passengers. The new system would employ background checks and at least one biometric identifier to hasten security screening for approved travelers.

Last week, meanwhile, Continental Airlines chairman Gordon Bethune urged federal officials to support use of ID cards to reduce hassles for travelers, and American Airlines employees visited Capitol Hill to back universal, biometric-based ID cards for employees, separate screening checkpoints and a standardized ID database should a card get lost or stolen. The U.S. Department of Transportation has said a smart card program is a priority for airline, airport and Federal Aviation Administration employees.

Northwest Airlines officials would like to launch a program for their employees by November, with TSA approval. And approval seems likely—far likelier for the time being than a program for travelers.

Airlines hint that a rollout for transportation workers ultimately would provide a set of technology standards that could serve as an extensive pilot test. "Can this serve as a pilot program for a traveler program? Yes," said American Airlines spokesman Steve Pankel. "Should it be done whether or not it serves as a pilot program? Yes." Pankel also argued that the program would save TSA money by concentrating costs on the "unknowns," while getting crews to planes to avoid potential delays.

In the past nine months, individual airports have experimented with new employee ID programs or beefed up existing programs, with mixed results. "Across airports there are so many different IDs, and streamlining those into one brings real benefits," Pankel said. "It's easier to single out those that are not real, and if it gets lost you can cancel it like a credit card."

While industry support for a traveler-based ID program remains strong, the concept lacks support among key government security officials.

John Magaw, undersecretary of Transportation for Security, remains opposed to a traveler-based program, arguing it would be expensive and not save significant time for these travelers. Still, Magaw said TSA would move forward with a Trusted Traveler program if Congress votes for it. Head of Homeland Security Tom Ridge has remained consistently in favor. Ridge invited major airline carriers last month to develop a detailed plan about how they would carry out a "known employee and known passenger smart card" program, confirmed Michael Wascom, spokesperson for the Air Transport Association.

The issue has sparked contention between the government and aviation industry, with airline execs accusing TSA of blocking an innovative program that would help spur a true rebound in air travel. Carol Hallett, ATA president, earlier this month extrapolated a Delta Air Lines estimate—using customer survey information—of potential revenue loss attributed to the "hassle factor" of $3.8 billion industrywide. Hallett said that "post-9/11 government policy decisions" impacted the loss.

The International Air Transport Association and Visa this spring forged a partnership to further the concept as part of IATA's "secure travel" project. IATA said the larger project would include member airlines and partners in a working group that would aim to develop a common specification for a global smart card, including a biometric standard.

Meanwhile, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives in April launched a Trusted Traveler initiative to help create an expedited traveler program for frequent travelers who submit to a background check, though first steps of the new committee's work focuses on communicating support to Congress. The committee also plans to release a survey on the topic to all ACTE members. Frequent travelers, the association argued, should be eligible for expedited processing because they are integral members of the business community.

"It's an economic decision," said committee chairman Earl Foster, who confirmed that four airlines also are members of the committee. "It's not just so people can fly again, but it's for the good of corporations and for the good of the economy in general." Productivity of business travelers is also on the line, he added. "A lot of corporations have taken away the traveler's ability to go to the lounge," he said. "Now by getting to the airport earlier, they're hanging out at the gate, unproductive."

As long as business travelers are willing to ante up the background information, interested vendors said, they can receive, in return, a faster checkin and screening process. Foster even suggested that verification of membership in such a program could be included in the PNR. But the time savings of the program continues to be debated. There are times of the day, after all, when the express checkin lines for preferred travelers are longer than lines for other travelers.

Despite its promise, it is unclear how much business travel such a program would revive, particularly given the time required to get the infrastructure up and running. Talking to 17 savvy travel buyers at the ACTE conference this spring, only five said if the Trusted Traveler program suddenly was in place there would be an increase short-haul flying. However, most respondents said their travelers would welcome and pay for a more streamlined travel security process.

Analysts said many business travelers have been affected by corporate cutbacks and the fits and starts of implementing a new national security process. The incentive for travelers to enroll in a more advanced system would be a more predictable travel experience in which the traveler has more control, said analysts and suppliers, rather than one in which they could find themselves "wanded," shoeless and frustrated.

A handful of private industry frontrunner companies already have developed strong prototypes, with biometric identifiers, that would make it infinitely harder to use a stolen card. As security product companies lead the testing process, airlines are acting as a sounding board for the new technologies. United Airlines spokesperson Joe Hopkins said United is looking at the different technologies and planning to give the government feedback.

Smart cards for passengers have been tested before. American Airlines three years ago invited government travelers to use a biometric-enabled smart card program to obtain boarding passes and identify themselves at the gate. "It was experimental, but it worked," said Dennis Fischer, vice president of government solutions for Visa and a government employee at the time of American's trial. Foster suggested that airlines would need to bear some of the cost of an expedited traveler program, but added, "I think they'd be happy to do it."

American Airlines chairman and CEO Don Carty believes clear intent in Congress would push the concept through to reality, despite some opposition in Washington. "TSA, largely ex-law enforcement types, is probably more reluctant," he said. "They are worried about sleepers, which is their job, but we need to architect around that and get on with it."

Catherine Kaliniak, a spokesperson with McLean, Va.-based Eyeticket, used the needle in the haystack metaphor preferred by several biometric vendors: Biometrics help airport security by reducing the size of the haystack.

In Denmark, Billund Airport this spring hosted a passenger processing trial conducted by tech provider BlueTags and wireless networker Red-M. The trial used Bluetooth technology to identify frequent business travelers electronically and transmit a biometric feature confirming identity to a screen supervised by security officers. And Eyeticket's JetStream iris scan product currently is in testing with Virgin Atlantic frequent travelers between New York JFK or Washington Dulles and Heathrow international airports.

Other frontrunners with highly visible products are Plano, Texas-based EDS, Irving, Texas-based Aeritas Inc., Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys and Rockville, Md.-based Maximus Inc. EDS' Express Entry system, which in 1998 was installed at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion International Airport, stores a digital measurement of a traveler's hand geometry. Aeritas' solution incorporates wireless applications, and frequent government partner Maximus maintains an open standards policy that would remain open to the government's chosen biometric application.

Some vendors and international aviation organizations suggested that two or three standards could be mandated to give airports more freedom to choose equipment and also to serve customers for whom one biometric standard might not work. A pilot test of facial recognition technology that concluded last month at Tampa International Airport already may have given facial recognition technology a bad name. The technology—provided by Visionics Inc., which since has merged with Minnetonka, Minn.-based Identix Inc.—failed to identify airport employees 53 percent of the time, though the company claimed tests at Boston Logan and Dallas Ft. Worth saw a 90 percent success rate.