Verified Identity Pass and British Airways this fall plan to launch the Clear Registered Traveler program at John F. Kennedy International Airport's Terminal 7 for North American customers. The deal represents the first partnership between an airline and a Registered Traveler operator and Verified Identity Pass' debut in the New York market.
While the terminal hosts British Airways operations in New York, it also serves Air Canada, All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Iberia Airlines, Icelandair, Qantas, United Airlines and US Airways. Verified founder and CEO Steven Brill said that Registered Traveler enrollees could use the expedited security screening process for all of the carriers in the terminal.
Brill said the companies plan to promote the program to the corporate market by "using our mobile enrollment kiosks to facilitate our joint marketing efforts to British Airways corporate clients throughout New York who travel overseas regularly from Terminal 7 at JFK."
Brill expects BA's JFK program—as well as previously signed airports in Cincinnati, San Jose and Indianapolis—to go live this fall, pending final 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 10 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 rules for privately run operators and airports would be refined through the pilot program this year 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 have asked to be in the first batch. You should see a lot of rollouts in the next six months," Brill said.