Airports Adopt Registered Traveler Program

A group of airports has formed the Registered Traveler Interoperability Consortium to develop standards that would allow each airport to sign up travelers and give passengers the same security privileges at different locations.

With this new system, participants can skip to the front of security lines and are exempt from secondary screening that includes pat-downs. Under the group’s plan, each airport might be able to offer its own perks, such as allowing passengers to earn additional frequent-flier miles or exempting them from having to take off their shoes or remove laptops from cases.

To become a member, passengers would need to provide personal information, such as dates of birth, e-mail addresses, home addresses and phone numbers, and have their fingerprints and irises digitally scanned. Airports would then submit the information to the Transportation Security Administration. If travelers pass background checks, they would receive Registered Traveler cards containing data chips with their information.