Trusted traveler programs grow

More than five years after it was proposed following the 9/11 terrorism, trusted traveler programs are operating at six airports. Five more airports in recent weeks have signed with a private partner to operate the government’s Registered Traveler program.

And at least four others — Washington Dulles, Reagan Washington National, Denver and San Francisco — say they’re shopping for partners to run their Registered Traveler programs.

“We’re pleased there are some competitors anticipated in the marketplace,” says Bill Connors, executive director of the National Business Travel Association, which supports the program. “More choice, the better.”

The Registered Traveler program allows certain airline passengers, for an annual membership fee, to quickly go through a separate airport security lane. Customers must pass a government background check and submit biometric information such as fingerprints or an iris scan to be read by an electronic device at the gate.

The Transportation Security Administration has given five companies at least preliminary approval to manage the program for airports. It requires that the members of one program be allowed to use others’ lanes.

The program at Jacksonville by Vigilant Solutions gives subscribers expedited passage but has yet to use biometric identification at its checkpoint. The company says it’s moving in that direction and expects this year to have pre-screening and biometric verification.

Vigilant Solutions, a radio frequency technology firm, calls its program the Preferred Traveler Program. For $149 a year, its members can go directly to a speedy check-in lane at Jacksonville that is also used by flight crews.

They can’t yet use their card at other airports that have a Registered Traveler program. But Julie Venditti, Vigilant’s chief technology officer, says that will change once its program gets fully certified by TSA as a Registered Traveler program.

She says the company is hoping for the final TSA approval this month. Today, only New York-based Verified Identity Pass, or VIP, is operating a full-fledged program that involves pre-screening of travelers. About 45,000 travelers pay $100 a year to belong.

But VIP is soon to get full-fledged competition from companies other than Vigilant.

Unisys, a security technology company based in Blue Bell, Pa., is targeting May 15 to roll out its Registered Traveler program, RTGo, at its first airport, Reno/Tahoe International. It has pre-enrolled about 100 customers.

FLO, a subsidiary of biometrics technology firm Saflink in Kirkland, Wash., signed its first airport customer, Huntsville, Ala., in March.

Its target date for the service is October, says Kevin Mitchell, a consultant working with FLO, which stands for Fast Lane Option.

While Huntsville’s passenger traffic isn’t as heavy as at larger airports, the company is also hoping to entice business travelers who frequently travel to Washington, D.C., and other cities with airports that will have a Registered Traveler program.

Verant Identification Systems, based in Rochester, N.Y., has initial approval from TSA but declined to discuss its plans.

Some airports not interested

But Registered Traveler continues to struggle against the indifference or opposition from many in the aviation business.

The Air Transport Association, a trade group of airlines, says in a statement that limited TSA resources “should not be diverted from efficiently and effectively screening all passengers, to a program that provides limited and questionable benefits for some customers.”

Dallas/Fort Worth, one of the nation’s busiest airports, has so far shown no interest in the Registered Traveler program. “Passenger security and efficiency should be readily available for all passengers,” DFW spokesman David Magaoa says.

Frequent business traveler Carl Woodin, who runs a multimedia firm in Maple Glen, Pa., says he won’t join a program until “they can guarantee that I won’t have to take off my shoes and take my two laptops out every time I go through security.”

Richard Schmidt, president of consulting firm Conventional Wisdom in Ocoee, Fla., is a satisfied customer of VIP but has “no interest in joining VIP clubs or receiving other discounts.”

“Keep the pricing reasonable and focus on the main security issues,” he says.

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Timeline

How the government’s Registered Traveler program has developed:

*2001: After 9/11, airline industry executives and some security experts ask the government to consider expedited security clearance for known air travelers.

*Summer 2004: The Transportation Security Administration begins testing a trusted traveler program. Starting with Northwest Airlines customers at Minneapolis-St. Paul, TSA works with four airlines to test the program at five airports.

*June 2005: Orlando airport hires Manhattan-based Verified Identity Pass to operate a privately run the trusted traveler program there.

*July 2005: Orlando starts its program with 4,000 subscribers who had paid $80 for a year. TSA officials say that private companies, not the government, will operate Registered Traveler programs.

*September 2005: TSA ends its test programs.

*January 2007: Airports at Indianapolis, Cincinnati and San Jose, Calif., launch their programs.

Source: USA TODAY research

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Airports and trusted traveler programs

Eleven U.S. airports have or are scheduled to have some version of the government’s trusted traveler program.

Airport Program operator Comment

Albany Verified Identity Pass Contract signed

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Verified Identity Pass

Huntsville, Ala. FLO (Fast Lane Option) Estimated start: October

Indianapolis Verified Identity Pass

Jacksonville Vigilant Solutions Currently no biometric registration for subscribers

Little Rock Verified Identity Pass Contract signed

Newark Liberty Terminal B Verified Identity Pass Contract signed

New York John F. Kennedy (Terminal 7) Verified Identity Pass Contract signed for Terminals 1 & 4

Orlando Verified Identity Pass

Reno RTGo Estimated start: May 15

San Jose, Calif. Verified Identity Pass

Source: The companies
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