TSA finalizes Registered Traveler fees
Announced background screening fee of $28 may save this valuable program; previous suggestions of $100 might have broken the market; full steam ahead for Verified Identity Pass
Finally, some clarity about the Registered Traveler program, the public-private arrangement that will allow pre-screened fliers expedited treatment at airport security checkpoints. Two months ago the Transportation Security Administration had suggested it would charge upwards of $100 per year per passenger for background screening services, a price that threatened, once the private fees were added, to derail the enterprise. TSA announced last week that it had reconsidered and would now charge only $28 annually, a price that should keep the total cost to about $100.
Registered Traveler is so far in place only at the Orlando airport, where more than 30,000 fliers have paid $99.95 for a one-year membership with New York, New York-based Verified Identity Pass. The company plans to expand the service to Cincinnati, Indianapolis, San Jose, and the British Airways terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport by January.
-read more in this Reuters report
