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Competition Comes to Registered Traveler Services

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

April 4, 2007

Airport Security • TSA's Air Cargo Plans Questioned • TSA Stops ShoeScanner In Its Tracks • New Controversy Dogs TSA Chief • TSA Worries About Terrorist 'Rehearsals' • "Registered Traveler" Expands to More Airports • Lighters, Breast Milk Get TSA's OK • JFK Airport Plot Renews Calls for Worker Screening • Future Security Could Feature Facial Photos • Bush May Veto Airport Screening Machines • Competition Comes to Registered Traveler Services • TSA Dragnet Aims to Block Potential Threats • Screening the Screeners Isn't Enough to Ensure Airport Security • Naked City Comes to Life in Phoenix Airport • TSA Adds Security Checks for Airport Employees

Competition is growing in the new field of express airport security.

That could be good news for passengers willing to fork over an annual fee of about $100 for the right to whisk through security without waiting in the long lines to which other taxpayers are consigned.

Critics suggest the program violates the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution but the companies claim that since they are private entities, they're free to do as they like, even though they operate on public property using taxpayer-provided facilities.

Under the registered traveler program, passengers who pass extensive background checks receive ID cards enabling them to use special express lines set up by the companies that run the service.

So far, those companies are Verified Identity Pass of New York City; Vigilant Solutions of Jacksonville Beach, Fla.; RTGo, a program of the Unisys technology firm; and FLO, a division of Saflink based in Kirkland, Wash.

Verified Identity Pass, conceived in 2003 and launched in Orlando two years later, has the most subscribers (40,000), while RTGo and FLO, the new kids on the block, are just starting up. The names of both newcomers are acronyms: RTGo will start at Reno/Tahoe International Airport, while FLO stands for Fast Lane Option. Its first client is the airport in Huntsville, Ala.

Vigilant Solutions is already available at Jacksonville International, where it started at the beginning of the year.

Airports that have Verified Identity Pass (VIP) include John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty in the New York area; Cincinnati and Indianapolis in the Midwest; and San Jose on the West Coast. Further California expansion is imminent.

According to the company, its Clear card will be usable not only at VIP client airports but also at registered traveler systems operated by competitors.

The premise behind all four companies involved in the registered traveler program can be found on the VIP website: "Someone who is pre-screened is less likely to be a threat than someone who isn't." It offers no evidence to support this assertion, however.

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