The Transportation Security Administration next month will roll out to six additional airports a pilot program that lets travelers select security lanes geared to their comfort with checkpoint screening processes.
Though the free program in part aims to move frequent travelers more quickly through security checkpoints—the underlying premise of the fee-based Registered Traveler program—TSA said the "Self-Select" lanes would not undermine Registered Traveler. However, others said if the program is successful and becomes permanent, it could compromise such fee-based offerings.
TSA last month introduced the lanes at Salt Lake City International Airport and Denver International Airport, with three separate checkpoint options for travelers requiring special assistance or families, casual travelers and expert travelers. Screening levels and procedures are identical across all lane types, and all passengers may choose a lane, a TSA spokesperson said. TSA at press time had not specified the airports involved in the program's expansion.
TSA has yet to determine how long the tests will last or whether the program would become permanent, and asserted that the Registered Traveler program would remain viable as Self-Select lanes expand. The two programs "are not mutually exclusive," a TSA spokesperson noted.
C. Stewart Verdery, former assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and now partner and founder of Monument Policy Group and the lead government affairs consultant to the National Business Travel Association, said Self-Select lanes are "aimed at solving some of the same problems" as the Registered Traveler program, though "I don't think people should see this as a substitute for a true Registered Traveler program."
TSA's program has potential, said David Castelveter, a spokesperson for the Air Transport Association, a commercial airline trade group, adding it "complements very nicely the other priority lines carriers provide, like the first-class or frequent-flyer lines." If successful, ATA said the program ultimately could replace Registered Traveler lanes, which cost roughly $100 for an annual membership.
"I don't see any difference in what is happening today than before the Self-Select lanes went in place," said Charles Chambers, Airports Council International-North America senior vice president of security and economic affairs. "Registered Traveler and its value proposition don't change just because of this program." Chambers said TSA met with his association and its U.S. members this month to engage airports in testing Self-Select.
TSA told airport operators 40 percent of travelers in the Salt Lake City pilot selected the expert traveler lanes, where throughput increased 35 percent during peak times. TSA noted expert traveler lanes were "consistently two to four minutes shorter than other lanes during peak."
Verdery said the Self-Select concept "may work," though "it's a bit of a shell game" that simply shifts long and short wait times to and from different traveler populations.
"It's nice that TSA is trying all kinds of things, but a voluntary program where you rejigger people into different lines is not the solution," said Steven Brill, founder and CEO of Verified Identity Pass, which operates the Clear Registered Traveler program. "The solution is to make the line process faster. Just with our concierges, our throughput is 30 percent faster than standard lanes, according to a study we did with TSA."
Brill said the Self-Select program has not hampered interest in Clear, claiming that enrollees are growing at a rate of 500 to 700 per day throughout the operator's network of more than one dozen U.S. airports.
TSA conceded that wait times largely are being displaced among traveler groups, rather than reduced in full, as preliminary statistics from the Salt Lake pilot show that the throughput increased in the expert lanes came with a decrease in the family lanes "relative to the average line." However, TSA noted, "families comment about appreciating less stress and the ability to take more time with their children, without impeding the progress of faster travelers."
Brill agreed with TSA that Self-Select lanes and Registered Traveler lanes are not mutually exclusive, noting that Denver launched Clear's Registered Traveler lanes in January, while Salt Lake City has solicited proposals for a program.
A spokesperson confirmed the Salt Lake City Airport is in the midst of a Registered Traveler RFP and said the airport views both programs—as well as hub carrier Delta Air Lines' elite status line for its frequent travelers—as complementary, offering "ways to expedite security according to what your needs are."
Among other shortcomings Brill and others noted, the TSA lanes are operated only at peak times, as designated by airports, and there still could be wait times as passengers move forward to select preferred lanes.
As TSA attempts to speed passenger flow, Registered Traveler vendors and others said fee-based programs must maintain value for members and stay steps ahead of TSA. Brill said his company continues to work toward TSA-compliant shoe-scanners that would eliminate the need for members to remove shoes. Clear also is working toward a solution to allow travelers to keep laptops in carry-on bags through security.
Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition and a consultant to Registered Traveler provider FLO, applauded TSA's test, saying FLO does not view the effort as a "strategic threat in any way to its business model." FLO's model differs from Registered Traveler competitors, he said, as it focuses on additional traveler benefits beyond the core expedited airport security lane offering
(BTNonline, March 26, 2007).Mitchell said, "Anything and everything to move business travelers more quickly through security will help passengers, will help the airlines and will help the economy."
BTN's Elissa Hunter contributed to this report.