Last month, reporter Jane Engle tested out the new system for pre-screened travelers (who’ve also forked over $100) to clear security faster and found many things lacking. Her chief complaint was that, quite simply, it wasn’t any faster:

“On my visit, special lanes for Registered Travelers were open for business. But no one was using them because the enrollees were still waiting for access cards.

Check-in kiosks to prescreen members were open too. But the shoe scanners and explosives detectors weren’t activated, so members had to go through the same security process as everyone else, removing coats and shoes and taking laptops out of bags.

The much-delayed program, overseen by the Transportation Security Administration but run by private vendors, is going nationwide after 18 months of testing in Orlando. It is enrolling thousands of members and gaining momentum, but problems also abound.”

While some of these issues – malfunctioning cards, inactivated detectors – have likely been resolved by now, others may prove to be intractable. According to the article, only a small number of airports, including Cincinnati, Indianapolis, New York (JFK), Orlando and San Jose, have the scanners, but they’re not available in all terminals. Also, our American insistence on running airports like private businesses means that different vendors, using different names, have been licensed to run the system in various places. Not very Clear™ is it? And for all this you can pay $100, and allow them to ferret around in your background to determine if you’re worthy to wait online just like everyone else.

– “Is the fast lane stuck in slo-mo?” (LA Times)
– Tagged: Airport Security