While wearing a mask is strictly required at every airport in the United States, millions of people nevertheless lower them each day for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). As omicron surges through the USA, now would be a great time for the TSA to simply do away with ID checks at security checkpoints.
Omicron Marks The Perfect Time For TSA To Abolish Airport ID Checks
I’m old enough to vaguely remember air travel in the pre-9/11 world. I remember a trip to Washington, DC in which my grandmother, 103 years old at the time, accompanied us to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to say goodbye. It was 2000 and we were flying TWA. We all went through security and sat in the gate area. She gave us a big hug and kiss goodbye and waved as we boarded our flight.
A year later, we traveled to Chicago on United and flew from Burbank via Denver and back. I remember that as our United 727-200 landed in Burbank, my Uncle was out on the tarmac to greet us.
Oh how times change.
Even as some airports (like New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Tampa) now offer gate passes if you are not traveling, it’s not like anyone can enter the secure side of the airport as long as they undergo a security screenings.
In some ways, that is for the best…it minimizes lines and keeps vagrants out. But the omicron variant presents a prefect storm to rollback some of the onerous security requirements that have been with us for over 20 years now since the 9/11 attacks.
Immunologist and respiratory physician Peter Openshaw told the BBC:
“[Omicron] is so infectious, it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected.”
Even so, TSA continues to insist that passengers in the U.S. lower their masks so that their IDs can be compared to their face.
Please continue to wear a mask in the airport and on your flight. When you get to the travel document podium, the @TSA officer will ask you to remove your mask for a few seconds to make sure your face and photo on your ID match, like this officer did yesterday at @terminalBLGA pic.twitter.com/YSkpliBZ1E
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) July 1, 2021
Why not just abolish the ID requirement altogether? All passengers would still need to undergo the full security screening, but it would quicken the security process and minimize the risk of virus transmission.
TSA PreCheck passengers would still likely have to lower their masks, since there is no alternate way to verify identity, but those who wish to remain masked could simply use the standard security line. CLEAR, a private security screening company that uses fingerprints or retina scans, is another option to avoid lowering your mask.
Since I use CLEAR, I have not had to lower my mask once during the pandemic at a U.S. airport except at Burbank (BUR), the only small airport I use.
CONCLUSION
Although debate continues about how lethal omicron is, there is no doubt it is highly contagious: the daily rise in case numbers testify to that. One way to minimize its spread would be for the TSA to stop asking travelers to lower their mask at the security checkpoint. This moment presents a perfect opportunity for TSA to dispense altogether with the ID check in order to enter the secure side of a U.S. airport. Not only would it protect passengers and TSA workers, it would represent an important step toward simplifying the security checkpoint process.
“Since I use CLEAR, I have not had to lower my mask once during the pandemic at a U.S. airport.”
Do you never fly out of airports that don’t have CLEAR? They’re hardly a universal presence.
I looked back on my flights in 2022 and the only exception was Burbank (post now edited to reflect that). Still, there’s widespread coverage at the airports I use.
That’s great. I’m TPA-based, so my home airport doesn’t have clear. Most of my travel is international, so obviously I miss out there as well. I do appreciate my free CLEAR membership as a 1K, and it comes in handy in EWR/ORD/IAH/etc, but it’s hardly the norm in my travels.
I think the perfect solution is to do what Europe is doing for security. There, you simply scan your boarding pass and you can go on through security. The TSA is pretty much security theater and Europe hasn’t had any more attacks than the US and they use a less strict system. But, the US government would take forever to get this kind of system installed. And best of all, you still don’t need to pull your mask down.
All security is “theater” whether you’re in Europe or the USA. Don’t kid yourself that different approaches are necessarily better or that the TSA isn’t already working closely with other security forces around the world to combat terrorism. Don’t think the bad guys haven’t gone away just because there has been a lack of activity. They’re constantly poking and prodding and love it when people start to relax and demand fewer safety protocols when traveling.
You are incorrect on everything you said.
Obviously you don’t fly over there or you wouldn’t have made the statements you did, because that is not how their security works.
Nothing happens huh? Lets see they have had the Shoe Bomber in 2001, then the Black Widows in 2004, the liquid explosives in 2006, the underwear bomb in 2009, printer bomb in 2010 , and finally metro jet in 2015, need we go on. You are wrong.
How about also enough with the removing belts, shoes, laptops? It really slows down he whole process. Just profile as well, especially anyone acted uppity.
Or get TSA pre check if you fly enough if it bothers you. Well worth less than $20 a year.
Will not happen, too many people making too much money out of TSA circus
That is it. Not freedoms. Not concern for safety. Everything in the USA happens because someone is making money. And the dumb fucks at the lower level think they are upholding/ enforcing the law.
Party of freedoms and dumb men willing to lose people to virus but not anyone to terrorism. Stop kabuki theater. Terrorism and accidents are endemic. Learn to live with them. We can afford to lose at least a few thousand every year.
Drama queen.
We need to defend our freedoms. I am willing to sacrifice your life and countless many like you to defend our freedoms. It will break my heart to lose you but I am willing to endure the terrible pain.
You’re right to follow the money, but the idea that is about “preventing terrorism” is a stretch. This is less about defending vague notions of freedom than taking a common sense approach to airport security.
No, the idea is not about just preventing “terrorism”. Please go and read TSA’s mission statement. It’s about protecting the nation’s transportations systems to ensure freedom of movement of people and commerce. Customs and Boarder patrol also check identification, to look for all threats.
TSA looks for EVERYTHING as well. TSA is not a counter-drug agency but they do help local and national law enforcement agencies recognize it and fight against it. Same goes for human trafficking. You’ll think its a good idea to get rid of identification checks until one day, a persons life could have been saved by simply checking the ID of a person wanting to cause harm or escape arrest, or people illegally entering the country on a fake passport, which TSA has specific systems that detect the fraudulent passports and ID’s, a typical Delta employee, does not go through the training to identify the key aspects of a fraudulent identification.
When coming into the country or any country for that matter, guess what customs, also law enforcement, asks you for? Identification. Again, all this nonsense is predicated because you have to pull your mask down for a few seconds.
Completely absurd,
I remember first flying in the 1960s so a few years before most of you here.
The one thing I have never seen in all the years is a security procedure rolled back, I’ve only seen more and more onerous ones introduced and of course we all get used to them but I remember the first time I flew checking in, no security questions, walking to the gate – no screening and the only check at that point was boarding passes being ticked off against a hand written list as we passed through the gate to walk to our Bristol Britannia. Checked bag deadline was ten minutes before departure and we left on time.
When liquid restrictions and separate screening of electricals was introduced in I think 2006, we were promised that by 2012 the restrictions wouldn’t be needed because scanning would have improved so much. Ten years later, I’m still working and even where there are such scanners, they are unreliable and IME, the queues even longer because of the amount of re-screening that takes place so now I avoid them if there’s a choice and go the old route.
So I have no hope that this will happen in the US or anywhere else where it is current.
Excellent comment! I have been flying since I was a baby (and before I can remember) and have seen the changes too. Yes, there were reasons for them. In the early 70’s there were frequent hijackings. By 1970, there were some days where more than one such event occurred – and that’s just within the US. Establishing security checkpoints became a necessary evil, but it also destroyed the appeal of certain airports at the time (MCI, IAD, DFW are examples). Then 9-11 happened and things were ratcheted up to another level. And it has continued on from there. These checks have never been loosened, always tightened. You could give authorities the point that they do this because they never want to see a tragedy like 9-11 happen again. But, it also conveniently allows them to have total control and gives an opportunity to sometimes find illegal things that wouldn’t actually jeopardize anyone’s safety. Or to confiscate large sums of money.
Will this ever be lightened up? Sadly, no. It’s like taxes: they never go away, they only grow. Your best option is to pay the money and sign up for precheck or Global Entry and/or Clear.
Minor (nice) quibble to seeing a security restriction rolled back:
Back in the 90’s, every check in counter was required to ask a set of questions whether you packed your own bag, etc. and this was eventually dropped.
I thought that came after 9/11. I’m still asked that every time I leave Germany for the USA.
No, it was introduced after an incident at LHR involving someone checking in a bag for a friend at LHR which turned out to have 1.5kg of Semtex in it. The airline in question was El-Al who always had more stringent measures in place anyway. That was back in 1986, there’s some info here about it:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/35-years-after-el-al-bomb-plot-security-staff-recount-stopping-unwitting-bomber/
The plane was routing NYC-LHR-TLV and the lady in question was joining the aircraft at LHR. Fortunately, she didn’t.
The ridiculous ban on laptops in carry on luggage that the USA, UK and possibly a couple of other places had imposed on those flying from/via Turkey and a bunch of Arabic countries (was it around 10 years ago?) did get rolled back.
Good point.
Lap-children on US-bound flights were banned by the US for a very brief while after the US spilled the beans on some then-impossible plot out of the UK. That insanity didn’t last as long as the “dangerous water” restriction.
it’s not about “spread” it’s about activation.
It’s the same line we’ve heard for years: “We want to know that you are who who you say you are.” Grammar aside, it is a bizarre statement. The TSA–and the FAA before it–always used it as their explanation.
I see the ID checks as a job creation program. There is no relationship between a driving license and terrorism.
These checks also create queues and crowds, which create a target for terrorist attacks in non-sterile parts of the terminal.
But we’re living in the land of 3.4 fluid ounces and magical plastic bags. Common sense, science, logic facilitation of travel, etc. aren’t just ignored, they are deliberately refuted.
Max you are totally wrong. There is a direct connection between ID’s and terrorist or criminals. They use fake ID’s to circumvent various watch lists. That is one of the reasons TSA wants to verify that the photo matches the person presenting the ID.
Ah, the wonderful 60s. I was sixteen, running through Denver airport to make my flight, carrying a rifle. The gate agent checked to make sure it wasn’t loaded and I boarded, putting the rifle in the overhead.
ahh the ’60s when the NRA was all about gun safety and education not buying $44k airpane rides on forexeccutives being paid millions of dollars a year.
This is never going to happen.
TWA went bankrupt in 1992. Must have been interesting to be on it in 2000.
Is that a joke? TWA operated till 2001.
The ID requirement is stupid and a way for the airlines to use the TSA as their lapdog. In particular, the lowering of masks doesn’t help.
I once used my father’s ID to get his car license plate. I then brought it to the car and used my ID to get my license plate. The clerk said “weren’t you already here?” but didn’t want to cancel my father’s license plate. She said that I didn’t look as old as the ID but didn’t do anything when she thought that.
Not sure if the logic here. The increased congestion at the airport and security lines themselves will outweigh any minuscule gains of not lowering your mask for a second.
I would not characterize congestion as the problem (versus exposure that comes from a lowered mask).
1 of the changes made since the pandemic in the TSA Pre-Check lines are that the Boarding pass is no longer needed at major airports.
The ID is linked to the Boarding Pass in the TSA system. The improvement was made under the contactless initiative.
I’ve seen that at certain checkpoints, not all – but then again, maybe it is more widespread than I know since I use CLEAR and just have to flash my boarding pass.
Now we can use our ID instead of our boarding pass, so it’s only one document either way. I don’t mind having them check us as part of anti-terrorism security. Was this written by somebody too young to remember the 9/11 attacks? I was flying that day. Getting killed by a terrorist is not a joke. A new reason for checking ID’s is COVID itself, mask violations, and violence against flight attendants – they check ID’s so people who were banned do not return to flying. A full security screening will not help with this, but checking ID’s will.
In most of the world, identity documents are checked by the gate agents during boarding. This helps mitigate not only security risks, but also the risk of boarding a flight without the correct passport/visa or even ending up in the wrong destination! If that’s also done in the US, then the id check at security is plainly redundant. If it isn’t done, then it should be done for all aforementioned reasons.
That ID checker is pretty cool, but TMK it’s not widespread.
That said, I don’t think we need to check IDs to protect us from terrorism – we need to ensure cockpits are secure…but that’s a whole different discussion.
My thoughts on 9/11 here–
https://liveandletsfly.com/9-11-coming-of-age/
It’s not about only “terrorism”. again, your opinion is coming from zero counter-terrorism experience and very vague understanding of protocol regarding passenger safety.
It’s about smuggling of drugs and people, flight risks, which may or may not be related to terrorism, avoiding capture of law enforcement by trying to leave local area, and many, many more very critical reasons.
@Michael – The TSA is not trained nor is it their mission to stop anything besides physical threats to a flight. While they won’t simply permit you to fly with illicit drugs, this is not what they are scanning for nor is it in their mandate. In fact, at least two documented incidents have been recorded where it was TSA employees doing the smuggling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_Security_Administration#Passenger_and_carry-on_screening
Totalitarian regimes can more comprehensively eliminate those noted criminal activities for a long while than open, liberal democratic republics can. But, unlike you, I’m opposed both to totalitarianism and to justifying the massive surveillance state infrastructure that you de facto want to exploit and defend by trying to justify suspect law enforcement fishing expedition chokepoints across America. Last I checked, the US is still supposed to be a liberal democratic republic; and that is despite the best efforts of the fear-peddling, dragnet-loving apologists for the surveillance state to de facto make the country to be anything but a liberal democratic republic that it was meant to be.
How dare they “require” me to present a boarding pass! Shouldn’t they just take my word that I am who I say I am and that I purchased a ticket for the flight? What about my freedoms!?!? /s
Revenue control is quite different than security theatre, wouldn’t you say? Everyone still has to undergo screening…
I can’t vouch for every airport here in Australia. But definitely at Sydney and Melbourne airport, I’ve often gone through security, not because I’m flying anywhere, but because I want to go to the gate lounge to await the arrival of a friend flying in. And of course, do a little plane-spotting as well! It’s been a long time since I’ve traveled to the US. But I assume that when you talk about your early days at airports, it’s regarding meeting domestic flights, not international ones. You can’t go to the gate lounge for an international flight in Australia because in order to go äir-side”, you need to clear customs. And that’s not permitted if you aren’t travelling on an international flight. I imagine the same system would apply in the US.
For better or for worse, the USA has no exit controls (like the UK) so there is no difference between the domestic and international departures area. But unlike UK, you can easily leave the departure area in the USA and return to the street or baggage claim or ticketing lobby without any sort of check.
Would NOT SPEED up anything. You make it seem as if the scanners are sitting waiting on people this is not the case in any flight I have ever been on. Which is over 2 mil miles. If no scanned of ID how to you know if person flying is the correct one? They don’t check I’d at gate on scan pass. Not using ID would allow those on no fly to use someone else’s ticket to board
Why should the federal government need to know if the person flying is the “correct” one? Have you ever looked into the abuse of the No Fly List?
Wow. Your comments are rather strange. Do you know how many people on a daily basis try/attempt to get pass security for various reasons? DO you know what will happen at an airport like JFK, is any and everyone is allowed to go pass security if they’re not flying?
I guess because you are CLEAR, your thought pattern is narrowed.
Because the “No Fly List” is not the only list that exists. Do you know that people, every day, try to traffic individuals for the sex and drug trade through our transportation systems? Of course you don’t.
Again, you’re looking at this from a spectrum of ignorance. When the person checks in, how do you know that person is who they say they are? How do you know they are on the fly list if they are using a false name? That’s the purpose of identification checks.
Even pilots are required to show their identifications when coming through the checkpoint.
This could be the dumbest thing I’ve read today.
You’re in the airport for an hour, in a plane for who knows how long and you’re worried about being maskless for 3 seconds?
The last few times I’ve gone through the checkpoint, I’ve been separated from the TSA officer by plastic anyway.
Oh, I’m not worried about being maskless…that’s for sure.
Everyone around you should be worried about & what you’re spreading every ti,e you exhale. You wouldn’t have surgery without the doctors and nurses wearing masks for your protection, and for the same reason, you should worry when people around you aren’t masked. Don’t be ignorant.
Then why mention it? You’re entire opinion piece, is predicated on lowering your mask for a few seconds.
“Although debate continues about how lethal omicron is, there is no doubt it is highly contagious: the daily rise in case numbers testify to that. One way to minimize its spread would be for the TSA to stop asking travelers to lower their mask at the security checkpoint.”
There are more than one reason why identification verification is important and judging by your opinion, you know none of them. I work in counter-terrorism and your opinion piece, is on our agencies website, just in case you’re wondering why I’m obliterating your idea to the point of insignificance.
*your
TSA as the front-line in the “war on terror”? It’s a joke.
The joke is on America each and every time a passenger is required to engage in the “ID is security” farce to fly domestically.
Screening passengers for restricted weapons, explosives and incendiaries is where the exclusive focus should be for the TSA, since passenger ID is not security nor required to be checked for a passenger and belongings to be effectively screened for restricted weapons/explosives/incendiaries. Any second spent on passenger ID checks is a resource wasted in such a way as to detract from securing passenger flights from restricted weapons/explosives/incendiaries.
Be careful. If we say that we are not comfortable taking mask down to show face, the airlines will take away food and drink on the plane again!
Well, that’s why your suggestion is part of the problem. TSA uses identification to make sure the right person is catching the flight, and they also use it to help fight human trafficking and other forms of illegal activity.
This is why you don’t and should not work in any counter-terrorism agency because, you’re only thinking about one end of the spectrum, someone coughing or breathing on someone. That’s incredibly dumb because you can catch the new strain, through unsanitized hands or other skin contact. If someone sneezes and touches their nose or mouth, and then touches the ticket, you scan the ticket and have now came into contact with their contaminants.
Any person who wants to harm others or disrupt the transportation system, catches wind that TSA is no longer checking ID’s, that’s a perfect opportunity to sneak through. Airline ticket counter employees, do not go through anywhere near the same amount of training TSA goes through in spotting counterfeit identifications. Matthew Klint, I suggest you stay in your and not write nonsense about a subject you know nothing about and are only looking through a very limited lens.
Your view of the TSA, whether from the inside or not, seems to ignore some gross negligence on the part of that organization. I am by no means against the TSA, the work they do, or the need for security. However, incidents where TSA extend above their mandate and against the law (like insisting that transporting more than $10,000 in cash domestically is illegal) is a problem. https://liveandletsfly.com/tsa-seized-legal-money-wont-return/
It would be an easier problem to ignore if the agency’s mandate wasn’t to stop and catch dangerous bad actors before boarding a flight when its own audits claim 70-95% of guns and explosives gets through its rigorous checkpoints. https://onemileatatime.com/tsa-fails-tests-95-percent/
If the agency feels they can expand their mandate to stopping human trafficking and drug smuggling, that’s fantastic! But shouldn’t they first start with catching guns inside of visual scanners?
I can hear the eyes rolling back in people’s head. IS there possibly a way to show less knowledge of the airport environment when it comes to operations and safety? Do we need more people needlessly going though security and increasing lines and missing flights? Why not let the homeless wander back and forth as well. While we are at it, we can bring back the call girls at ATL airport bars. Time to live in the now and let go of “how it used to be”. (Cue’s Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” while walking into sunset on AOA)
No government ID requirement for me to fly domestically within Sweden and yet the planes aren’t dropping like flies. Even into 2020, I did some international flights without being hit by any ID checks for those international flights. Those too didn’t drop like flies. The same thing could work just as well with domestic flying in the US: just scrap the “ID is security” nonsense and there is an improvement right there.
A significant number of travelers still argue about being required to wear a mask at all. (The governor said I don’t have to!) This situation you describe is limited. Try sitting in a Florida airport and watching what TSA puts up with for a few minutes.
You’re going about this all wrong. If you want a more efficient TSA, how about paying them better? And perhaps making it a finable offense for attacking, assaulting or otherwise behaving violently towards them?!
The agency does not protect their employees, they do not reward longevity. The people we interact with make McDonald’s-level wages because the US government has made paying TSA agents better wages a partisan subject. Republican? – we’ll pay them better after we fix the g-scale (right after we give ourselves another raise). Democrat? We should pay them, but we’ve got better ways to spend money (like giving ourselves another raise). DHS? It’s the fault of the person we appointed in charge of TSA that we won’t replace. They gave themselves a raise instead of everyone else.
Meanwhile these poor people are just trying to keep bombs off our planes.
If you want to enact changes, you have to enact them at a level that will be effective, and will deal with the root issues.
Increasing pay for security screeners doesn’t necessarily produce productivity gains of a sort that matters for protecting my many flights from restricted weapons, explosives and incendiaries. If anything, it would tend to lead to worse returns for the money.
Absent high-return capital investment relevant to the interdiction of restricted weapons, explosives and incendiaries, the best way to increase efficiency of the passenger screening process is to LIMIT the focus of the TSA onto just the interdiction of weapons, explosives and incendiaries; and this means scrapping the passenger ID-based carnival.
Maybe CLEAR-like model would work elsewhere. But in USA, where people are allergic to ID (except driver license, somehow…), it’s not gonna happen.
Look, TSA want to use REAL ID, like the laws say they should. And it’s been delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Asking for retina or more secure way to handle identification? Yeah, not gonna happen. Maybe you are confused USA with somewhere sane?