U.S. Transportation Security Administration administrator
Peter Neffenger wants to transform airport security checkpoints into
fast-moving, largely touchless experiences, "transforming a system that
hasn't changed in a long time," he said at the Global Business Travel
Association conference this week.
Scenes at some airports a few months ago—massive,
understaffed security lines that caused many travelers to miss flights—stood
in sharp contrast to that vision. Those problems came after Neffenger tried to
fix problems that pre-dated him, such as banned items getting through security.
"We had fewer people than we needed, and they were not distributed in the
right way," Neffenger said. "We had focused so much on finding ways
of moving people efficiently through a line, we lost effectiveness."
Over the past month, the TSA "has dramatically changed
the experience for passengers," making some additional hires and shifting
some operating models. Airline, airport and security personnel, for example,
are participating in daily briefings in which they report on expected volume
and any potential problems, such as a closed lane.
"When you have people talking to you every day, they
get better at what they do, and you start to see some dramatic
improvements," he said.
The enrollment rate in TSA PreCheck has increased sharply under
his watch via advertising pushes and work with airlines, trade organizations
and corporations. A year ago, the program averaged 3,000 enrollments per day.
Now, that number is as high as 20,000, he said. "Ideally, I'd like to see
everyone in a trusted traveler program, eliminating screening entirely for
groups of passengers," Neffenger said.
Automating more security lanes also is a priority for the
agency, which includes cooperation with airlines, such as Delta Air Lines' $1
million investment in newly designed lanes in Atlanta, which have improved
throughput by 30 percent to 40 percent, he said.
United Airlines also is working with the TSA to debut 17
automated lanes in Newark in the fall and to open more in Los Angeles and
Chicago later this year, the carrier announced. The lanes will let five
travelers fill up bins at the same time, and a conveyer system will return bins
to the front of the line automatically, like a bowling alley's ball-return
system.
Automation does more than alleviate traveler stress,
Neffenger said. Traveler interaction with TSA agents often is "an
adversarial and stressful interaction for both sides, so the more we can move
away from that, the better off we are," he said. In addition, long
security lines and crowds in front of checkpoints are security risks, as shown
by airport terrorist attacks in Brussels and Istanbul.
The potential of these transformations is what
convinced Neffenger to take the job last year, possibly second only to the
Internal Revenue Service commissioner as the most unpopular position in
Washington. "I've had a lot of frustrations with TSA over the years,"
Neffenger said. "I thought if I had a chance to fix it, I won't turn it
down."