Photo by Matthew BooteABC News reports that the Transportation Security Administration is preparing to introduce a program that would allow participating flyers to have an easier go of it while going through airport security. Just think of it: Not having to hold up the line to remove your laptop from your briefcase, carrying more than one ounce of toothpaste and shampoo and, oh yes, being relieved of the onerous time-waster of removing one’s shoes.
The TSA’s Pre-Check program, which is currently available to some 310,000 travelers at seven airports, is being expanded to 28 more major terminals in 2012, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. Among the additions are the three airports serving the D.C. area, the three New York airports and Chicago-O’Hare. (See the full list in the TSA’s announcement.)
Flyers enrolled in Pre-Check get whisked through security lanes—no silly rules about gels, no undressing in public. The catch? You have to be pre-screened by either an airline’s frequent-flyer program or a background check conducted by Customs and Border Protection. And it’s only for U.S. citizens.
Salt Lake City International Airport gets it first next week, the TSA said, followed by John F. Kennedy International on February 28. D.C. area travelers willing to unburden themselves of personal information in exchange for not having to put their socks on a grimy airport floor can start doing so when Pre-Check comes to Reagan National Airport in March, but only if they’re flying on Delta or on American Airlines flights to Chicago. (The nationwide restrictions to certain airlines and destinations are too many to list.)
Even when the TSA loosens up, they still make it tricky.