Thursday, April 12, 2007
How to get through SFO security in 30 seconds
By Joshua
Sabatini
The San Francisco (CA) Examiner
SAN FRANCISCO - As soon
as October, passengers flying out of the San Francisco International Airport
could pass through security lines within seconds if they pay an annual fee and
offer up very personal information.
Five airports in the nation have
implemented the so-called Registered Traveler program designed to provide
frequent fliers with relief from the long waits in post-Sept. 11 security
lines.
SFO will become the sixth airport in the nation to implement the
program, which Mayor Gavin Newsom said would “get us further along the lines of
being the most effective, efficient and reliable airport in the United
States.”
The airport’s current average wait time to pass through security
is 2.4 minutes compared with the national average of 4.2 minutes, and during
peak times the wait averages six minutes compared with the national average of
16 minutes, Newsom said.
That wait time could decrease to 30 seconds for
members of the Registered Traveler program, according to San Francisco airport
Director John Martin.
The program costs a traveler $99 a year. The fee
gets the traveler a biometric ID card that lets security screeners know that the
traveler is not a security threat and can move to the front of the security line
or use special security lines only for ID holders.
To become a member, a
traveler must undergo a retina scan, fingerprinting and an extensive background
check, as thorough as what airport employees undergo before being hired, Martin
said.
SFO will ask private companies to compete to become the operator of
Registered Traveler Program, which is expected to go live in October.
The
program comes at a time when SFO is adding three major airline carriers:
JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin, which is expected to boost the region’s economy,
but also have the unintended consequence of increasing wait times in security
airport lines.
Last January, Mineta San Jose International Airport
implemented the program and has already signed up 4,000 frequent flyers,
according to San Jose airport spokesman Rich Dressler. The program has been a
“tremendous success,” he said.
On the web:
The
Commodification of Airport Security Access
http://www.californiaaviation.org/weblog/archive/2007_01_28_archive