Registered Traveler Launch W/O Rollout: Nationwide Rollout Of Private Voluntary Prescreening Program Months Away

The Transportation Security Administration's Registered Traveler program launch date of June 20 will pass with no new airports up and running, final rules for providers yet to be fully established and the nationwide interoperable program for which TSA last year laid out its vision still months away.

Although off to a slower-than-anticipated start, private industry providers and TSA said the program will come to fruition in the next year, even as opponents continue efforts to derail the voluntary program that promises to speed prescreened travelers through airport security.

TSA, in its latest dispatch on the program released late last month, said it would issue Registered Traveler standards "for the initial phase" this summer, but held to its cap of 20 on the number of airports that will launch this year. TSA stressed the program this year will 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.

"The Registered Traveler design will evolve throughout the coming year, incorporating lessons learned and best practices throughout the process," TSA said in a document publicly released late last month.

In the dispatch, TSA outlined what information travelers must submit to apply for background checks (see chart), the estimated dollar amount operators must remit to the government for using TSA screeners and other resources, and said it would require fingerprints as the basis of biometric identification with the "option of providing two iris images as a supplementary biometric."

Still awaiting final TSA approval and an upcoming privacy-impact analysis, a handful of airports are poised to launch the program while others have declined the idea outright.

In addition to the ongoing Orlando program, which Verified Identity Pass began operating last year, airports in Cincinnati, Indianapolis and San Jose have signed deals with Verified Identity Pass to be among the first to launch such programs.

"We have people out there planning lanes and figuring out implementation schedules and the timeline for online enrollment, in-person enrollment and moving people through the security kiosks," company founder and CEO Steven Brill told BTN last week. "We're awaiting word from TSA on when we can start the online piece of it."

Brill continued: "There's very little doubt that the early airports will get the go-ahead from TSA. They've all filed their expressions of interest with TSA. TSA put a Web site up last week and a whole bunch of airports have immediately filed, typically the ones we've been talking to. There's that issue of them saying, 'We want to engage with you and see your plan of operations.' The one thing that TSA hasn't done yet, which they say they're doing momentarily, is filing a privacy impact statement, which they have to do before a program like this can start collecting information from people. That, I'm told, is days away from being filed."

Many airports came out in favor of the idea, but it remains to be seen how many will join in TSA's initial Registered Traveler phase. The Registered Traveler Interoperability Consortium—a collective of more than 70 airports, including Baltimore/Washington International, Denver International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey—said the principle of their mission statement is that the Registered Traveler program "needs to move forward operationally without further delay." Although in favor of the concept, not all of the consortium's members plan on joining once Registered Traveler is up and running.

While airports in Los Angeles and Denver recently submitted requests for proposals, Boston Logan International Airport, a member of the consortium and participant in TSA's original Registered Traveler program pilot test, said June 8 it wouldn't offer a Registered Traveler program. Officials doubt travelers will pay up to $100 for the privilege of marginally faster screening, as the average wait at Logan is about three to four minutes. Meanwhile, reports said McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas also has rejected the concept.

The Air Transport Association, which has been a vocal opponent of the program on grounds that it will drain TSA resources, detract from programs that impact all travelers and underdeliver on its promises, this month sent letters to directors at 79 major U.S. airports, encouraging them to boycott the program.

ATA and its member carriers, which include American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, among others, "remain opposed to the Registered Traveler program as it is currently being developed," the letter said.

However, Brill disputed that all carriers are opposed. "One airline already has filed an expression of interest with TSA and a couple of others are going to do it fairly quickly. They're certainly not unified in that position, but once this thing gets rolling, they will be our marketing partners, much like the credit card companies and the travel management companies." Verified Identity Pass last week welcomed Visa and Carlson Wagonlit Travel as marketing partners.