The Transportation Security Administration is expanding another program to keep the agency's promise of TSA PreCheck airport security lines that are 10 minutes or less. But some California airports didn't make the cut. The agency plans to expand its Touchless ID program by this spring, allowing travelers to keep their boarding passes and Real IDs in their bags. Instead, the officer will direct the traveler to take a photo and, using biometric data, waive them through.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will expand a touchless identification process for members of its TSA PreCheck program during airport screening to dozens of new airports this year. The TSA PreCheck Touchless ID line has been popping up at large airports across the country and is currently available at 20 different locations. But this year, the agency confirmed to Travel + Leisure it will expand the program to 45 new airports from Boston to San Diego and beyond.
TSA PreCheck allows U.S. travelers to skip the part of airport security where you take your shoes off. For NYT's the Upshot, Ben Blatt and Christine Chung analyzed wait times at a handful of airports to see if the program really shaves off minutes. The program seems to help most of the time, at New York airports at least. At these airports - Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark - PreCheck saves travelers five to 10 minutes on average, according to our analysis.