Reagan National and Dulles airports on Wednesday started up a program that lets fliers bypass bottlenecks at airline security stations.
For a $128 annual fee and background checks, fingerprinting and iris scans, airline passengers can buy a Clear Card, which allows passengers to go through their own security line in no more than five minutes, Clear officials say.
“Productivity is huge,” said Bill Connors, director of the National Business Travel Association. “You save so much time and money. I can spend more time with my family and save my company money too in the process.”
More than 3,500 Washington-area residents, 118,0000 nationwide, have signed up for the program.
Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International are the 15th and 16th airports to join the program;Clear officials are working to install the program at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport as well.
To join the registered traveler program, an air traveler needs to apply online, providing personal information, and then visits the nearest approved location to supply further documentation such as a birth certificate and fingerprint and iris readings. After the in-person enrollment, background checks are conducted by the Transportation Security Administration.
“This way, TSA can judge from your past, your risk level,” said Daryl Vincent, who assists Clear customers at an in-person enrollment station downtown. A Clear card is sent within 10 business days to three weeks.
The line designated for card holders reduces traffic by double-digit percentages, said Steven Brill, chief executive of Clear.
“Not only does this help members, but it also speeds access for non-subscribers,” Brill said.
But privacy advocates question the program.
“All you have to do is pass a background test,” said Melissa Ngo of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh could have passed the background test. Identity does not lead you to knowing a person’s intentions.”
Also, she said she was wary of the program because the information collected could be spread for marketing purposes.
“Clear can sell their banks of data and you wouldn’t know how another company got your information,” depending on the company’s privacy policy, Ngo said.
Clear does not sell or give lists of personal information to any business or nonprofit organization, under its privacy policy.
Orlando, Fla. was the first airport to introduce the program. Since then, 13 U.S. airports have joined, including LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy and San Francisco.
