"Pre-screening on hold at Nashville airport"

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Pre-screening on hold at airport
Program won't be in Nashville soon
By KATE HOWARD
The Tennessean


The Nashville International Airport receives almost daily requests from
travelers to implement a Transportation Security Administration program that
allows pre-screened passengers to pay an extra $100 or so for a quick trip
through security lines.

With average security-line wait times here of 3.9 minutes, as well as an
ongoing airport renovation that will consolidate two checkpoint areas into
one that won't be completed until 2008, Nashville travelers likely won't see
the program anytime soon.
 
"Because Nashville and the Mid-South are becoming home to the music
industry, Nissan and so many other corporate headquarters, there's
definitely sufficient interest and demand in the long term to institute the
program," said Lynne Lowrance, director of communications for the Metro
Nashville Airport Authority.

Nashville airport officials sent a letter to the agency in 2005 indicating
the city's interest in the so-called "registered travelers" program after
the ongoing renovations. Lowrance said she expects the airport to explore
the program in more detail at a later date. 

The agency's expedited security lines are operating at six airports across
the country, and at least a dozen others, including Huntsville, Ala., and
Atlanta, are either shopping for a vendor or planning the launch of their
registered traveler programs.

The program, developed in the wake of 9/11, works by shunting passengers
into a special line where they receive an electronic iris scan and a
fingerprint check before going through a routine metal detector. While the
process is overseen by the TSA, it's operated by five private companies that
have been approved to run the logistics of the program at airports. 

"TSA still controls the metal detectors," said Cindy Rosenthal, spokeswoman
for Clear, one of the approved TSA vendors that operates the registered
traveler program at five airports, including Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
"You're basically getting the same treatment as everyone else but not
standing in the same line."

Membership in the programs starts at about $100 a year, $28 of which goes
back to the government, and each vendor is required to honor one another's
membership cards. In Nashville, Delta, Northwest and Continental operate a
similar program in which their "elite class" fliers can pass through a
special security line.

Fliers split over need

Seth Cromley of Chicago, who flew through Nashville this week for the first
time, said the line here is like a coffee break compared to waiting at
O'Hare International.

"If they ever offered this (TSA) program at O'Hare, I would definitely use
it," said Cromley. "But if I were from here, for this eight-minute line, no,
I wouldn't pay."

But Beverly Shadden of Bellevue said she travels once a week through the
Nashville Airport and would be willing to pay $100 for the added security of
knowing she won't have to wait.

Standing about 30 people deep in a security line this week, Shadden said,
"It's days like this that the money would be worth it."

On the Web:

The Commodification of Airport Security Access
http://www.californiaaviation.org/weblog/2007/01/commodification-of-airport-
security

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