Extensive delays at security checkpoints in airports across the country have caused missed flights and heightened tempers. O’Hare International Airport in Chicago is advising passengers to arrive three hours early for flights. Passengers waiting in line for two to three hours spawned the hashtag #iHateTheWait to vent their frustrations to the Transportation Security Administration. Aviation security expert Sheldon H. Jacobson, a University of Illinois professor of computer sciences and mathematics, talked with News Bureau physical sciences editor Liz Ahlberg about the factors that have contributed to the security delays and how the PreCheck process could be more efficient.
Why are these delays happening? Is such rigorous screening really necessary?
The delays are due in part to a reduction in TSA staff. The TSA overestimated the enrollment for TSA PreCheck. As a result, the TSA reduced the number of field officers too quickly. TSA Administrator Peter Neffinger is adding more TSA security officers to reduce such delays.
Enhanced screening is necessary when little is known about a traveler. However, excessively long queues create an additional security threat, as seen with the terrorist events at the Brussels airport on March 22, further exacerbating this already strained situation.
What can passengers do to speed up the process?
In the short run, there’s not much a passenger can do. Show up earlier at the airport for your flight. You could drive rather than fly, which has its own risks. Looking ahead, the TSA does have a solution for anyone who flies three or more times each year: PreCheck.
What is PreCheck? How does it help?
Passengers who enroll in PreCheck allow the government to perform a background check so that they are known quantities when they arrive at the airport. It is natural to be skeptical when a government agency tells you that it wants to help. In this case, the TSA is right. TSA Precheck is designed to shift security resources away from the one-size-fits-all approach to one where the most known travelers are subjected to expedited screening. This leaves more security resources for higher-risk passengers or passengers for whom limited information is available.
The TSA hopes to have 25 million travelers enrolled in PreCheck. At that level, the TSA field officer workforce can be reduced by around 13 percent. More important, the systems will be more secure. However, travelers have been slow to sign up, possibly due to the $85 per person enrollment fee.
Only 2 million people have enrolled to date, far from the 25 million goal. How can the government make PreCheck more accessible for travelers?
The enrollment fee could be waived. According to our research, each enrollment in TSA Precheck saves on average no less than $18 per year of staffing and equipment costs. By enrolling 25 million high-volume travelers, at no cost to them, the actual direct cost savings – no less than $2.3 billion spread over a five-year period – will exceed the cost of these enrollments: $2.1 billion upfront, covering the same time period. It is a modest savings.
However, the real benefit is that the air system will be significantly more secure, and waiting times will be significantly reduced – along with the associated inconveniences for travelers – all with a smaller work force. Who wouldn’t want to make such an investment?
Here is an opportunity to invest in a program that will save the government money, improve security, reduce lines at airports, and enhance passenger flow and satisfaction at airports. This is a win-win situation for the government, the airlines and travelers. This is one use of government funds that we can afford, and one that requires immediate action so that the summer 2017 travelling season can be the smoothest on record.