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 GUESTS IN 2 CITIES CAN TRY |
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To go through airport security without a boarding
pass, people must:
• Be guests at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Dallas/Fort
Worth airport or Detroit Metro Airport's Westin
Hotel.
• Be checked against terrorist watch lists used to
clear air travelers
Source: Airports, Department of Homeland
Security | |
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By Thomas Frank
USA TODAY
The Transportation Security Administration is
testing whether it can ease a post-9/11 policy that bars people from
meeting relatives and friends at airports as they come off flights.
A test program at Dallas/Fort Worth and Detroit
airports could pave the way for other airports to allow non-travelers
through checkpoints to meet passengers or shop at stores and
restaurants.
"There are a lot of airports that would like people
without boarding passes to have access to concessions," said Michael
Conway, a spokesman for Detroit Metro Airport, which starts its test next
week. Dallas' test started last week.
The TSA began requiring boarding passes at
checkpoints after it took over airport security in 2002 — largely to
reduce the number of people getting screened and ease lines, said Steve
Martin of the Airports Council International.
Letting non-travelers back in security lines "adds to
the congestion and the difficulty of screening," said aviation security
consultant Billie Vincent.
The TSA says it won't waive boarding-pass
requirements if it would lengthen lines or weaken security, and notes that
the test is small. Only guests at hotels inside the Dallas and Detroit
airport terminals can go through security without boarding passes, and
they must be checked against terrorist watch lists.
"We are interested to evaluate how limited expansion.
.. would work," TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.
Pittsburgh International Airport is watching. The TSA
blocked the airport's 2003 bid to let non-passengers beyond checkpoints.
If TSA's pilot program "is a success," airport spokeswoman JoAnn Jenny
said, "we might be able to persuade them to let us try it with the
public."
Steven Brill, whose company Verified Identity Pass
speeds up security for travelers who pass background checks, said his
non-flying customers also should be allowed through checkpoints. The TSA
pilot "establishes the concept that people who aren't boarding planes can
go through and use the shops," Brill said.
Airlines currently can give airline club members and
parents of young children "gate passes" that allow them through
checkpoints.
The Dallas and Detroit airports say their waiver will
let people at the airports' terminal hotels patronize dozens of shops and
restaurants beyond security checkpoints. That helps attract tourists and
conferences, said Jim Crites of the Dallas airport.
"For airports, it provides additional
non-aeronautical revenue and passenger service," said aviation consultant
Stephen Van Beek.
Martin of the Airports Council doesn't expect a major
expansion of the test program because airports fear that non-travelers
would back up security lines.
"I don't think we're going back to where it was"
before 9/11, Martin said. | 
