The Transportation Security Administration’s deadline to launch express checkpoints at as many as 20 airports nationwide by Tuesday passed without a single security lane opened and support for the program teetering.
TSA officials now say they expect to launch the “Registered Traveler” program at 10 airports late this fall with a wider expansion still planned for next year. More than a dozen airports — including San Jose, Los Angeles and Denver — already took significant steps to begin the service which allows frequent flyers who pass a security background check to pass through special security lanes. Yet delays in setting guidelines and costs for the program have already led to a dozen more airports — including Boston, Las Vegas, Detroit and San Francisco — to pass on the idea.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which runs both Reagan National and Dulles International, said they will send in a “statement of interest” to the TSA for both airports and said they remain open to the idea, said MWAA spokeswoman Tara Hamilton. BWI spokeswoman Tracy Newman said the airport is studying the idea, but nothing has been finalized.
“This is just a first step to let the TSA know that we would like information about the program they approve with an interest in providing this service to our customers,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said any decision depends upon what rules the TSA eventually decides on and “how it would meet any of our customer’s needs.”
The delay comes as two of the nation’s leading aviation associations, the Airports Council International and the Air Transport Association, sent letters to airlines and airport directors warning the “express” system could cause delays for travelers not in the program and drain resources from normal security operations.
TSA officials have said any new checkpoints would not cause delays for nonregistered travelers.
Like Dulles and Reagan, hundreds of other airports across the country remain undecided, officials said.
