TSA Program Will Speed up Airport Security Transit for Many

The Transportation Security Administration is making it easier for more than a quarter of American fliers to pass through airport checkpoints.

An estimated 450,000 passengers a day — a random selection of people deemed low security risks by the TSA — will be eligible for the expedited service, reports The Washington Post.

"To do this, the government and TSA are collecting no new information," Joseph Salvator, TSA deputy assistant administrator, told the newspaper. "Everything we're using to make these risk assessments is information that the passengers currently provide the TSA, which is name, date of birth, and gender."

Passengers will learn whether they have been chosen for the faster lines either when they receive their boarding pass or when they present their boarding pass at a security checkpoint.

They will then be sent to a line now designated for members of the military, the TSA's Pre-Check program, the Global Entry program, and passengers older than 75 or younger than 12.

Passengers will still have to put their carry-on luggage through X-ray machines and go through metal detectors, but steps such as removing shoes and coats and putting laptop computers in separate bins will not be required.

"It's our philosophy that one size doesn’t fit everybody," Salvator told the Post. "When TSA was stood up after 9/11, we treated everybody the same. We're trying to move off that model and use a risk-based approach and the intelligence we have developed over the years."

The TSA plans to have the expanded program up and running early next month, ahead of the busy Thanksgiving weekend.