Fliers brace for big security lines at airports – ‘PreCheck not a failure but not moving as quickly as it needs to move’

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NEW YORK, March 30, (AP): An expedited screening program called PreCheck was supposed to be the answer to maddeningly long security lines at the airport. But four years after its launch, the Transportation Security Administration is far short of enrolling enough travelers to make a difference, spelling trouble for summer travel season. Fliers can expect massive security lines across the country, with airlines already warning passengers to arrive at least two hours early or risk missing their flight.

The TSA cut its airport screener staff by 10 percent in the past three years, anticipating PreCheck would speed up the process. When not enough fliers enrolled, the agency tried to make up for that shortfall by randomly placing passengers into the express lanes. But it recently scaled back that effort for fear dangerous passengers were being let through. That’s when the lines started growing, up to 90 minutes in some cases.

The TSA is shifting some resources to tackle lines at the nation’s biggest airports, but says there is no easy solution to the problem with a record number of fliers expected this summer. “We had unacceptable line waits at the majority of our hubs,” says Robert Isom, chief operating officer of American Airlines. “Based on what the TSA is telling us, there is no relief in sight.” Launched nationwide in 2012, PreCheck gives previously vetted passengers special screening. Shoes, belts and light jackets stay on. Laptops and liquids stay in bags. And these fliers go through standard metal detectors rather than the explosive-detecting full-body scanners most pass through. PreCheck lanes can screen 300 passengers an hour, twice that of standard lanes. The TSA offered Congress a lofty goal of having 25 million fliers enrolled in the program. Based on that and other increased efficiencies, the TSA’s frontline screeners were cut from 47,147 three years ago to 42,525 currently.

At the same time, the number of annual fliers passing through checkpoints has grown from 643 million to more than 700 million. As of March 1, only 9.3 million people were PreCheck members. Applicants must pay $85 to $100 every five years. They must also trek to the airport for an interview before being accepted. Getting once-a-year fliers to spend the time or the money to join has been a challenge. While 250,000 to 300,000 people are joining every month, it will take more than four years at that pace to reach the target. “It hasn’t been a failure; it just isn’t moving as quickly as it needs to move,” says Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice president for legislative and regulatory policy at airline trade group Airlines for America.

Without enough members, the TSA faced a problem: PreCheck lanes were nearly deserted while other lines snaked throughout terminals. Keeping empty PreCheck lanes open was a waste of staff. But without them, passengers who paid to join would be aggravated. So the agency created workarounds to allow passengers who hadn’t been fully vetted to still get expedited screening. Those who flew 50,000 miles a year or more with an airline sometimes got the PreCheck designation on their boarding pass at check-in. Others would randomly get it based on demographic information.

As a further step, the TSA in 2013 created a program called Managed Inclusion where it randomly pulls people out of the normal line when it grows too long. Fliers’ behavior is monitored, they are screened for explosives and then allowed to use the faster PreCheck lane. The Associated Press has spent the last year fighting under the Freedom of Information Act for details on how many fliers are allowed into PreCheck through each method, but has been denied the information for unspecified security reasons.

This news has been read 5566 times!

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