A new "pre-check" program is helping to ease the long waits at airport security.
During peak travel times, you can sometimes see the security lines stretch across the walkways between the airport and parking garages. But thanks to a new TSA initiative, at least for some people, those security lines may be going away.
Security screening lines have become a fact of life since the September 11th attacks, as everyone from children to senior citizens must remove their shoes, open their laptops and walk through metal detectors or X-rays.
But the TSA has announced that later this year, many major airports, including Philadelphia International, will offer a program called PreCheck. It will allow some passengers to be pre-screened and essentially get an "EZ Pass" through the lines.
"The more pre-screening we can do, the more likely it is that a person would be able to keep their shoes on, their belt on, a light jacket, and laptop in their brief case; things like that," says TSA Administrator, John Pistole.Frequent Traveler Sam Muthee of Marietta, Georgia, saw travelers using the program earlier Thursday in one of seven the airports where the TSA has been trying it out since October.
"I'm lining up here, and people are coming from somewhere else, and they went to the other side and they were just cleared," said Sam Muthee.
To qualify for PreCheck, travelers must be members of the frequent flyer program of a participating airline, and provide identification information like fingerprints to the TSA.
Travelers the TSA decides are low security risks get a special bar code on their boarding passes.
ABC News timed PreCheck travelers at LAX. They found it took six minutes, ten seconds to get through the regular line, but only 54 seconds to get through PreCheck.
And travelers in Philadelphia say that sounds good to them.
"You can just not take off your shoes, you can just go straight through; you don't take your laptop out, you can maybe bring a drink. You're prescreened, what's wrong with that?" said Dianna Frey.
"I travel a lot, and if Homeland Security says it's okay, then I'm good with that," said Wade Burchell.
The TSA has not yet determined which airlines will be participating in PreCheck in Philadelphia or exactly when it will start. But it should be in Philadelphia before the end of the year.
