The Transportation Security Administration is allowing select non-flyers through its security screenings to airport gates as part of a new program called “Gateside,” loosening the reins on a post-Sept. 11 attack airport measure.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the initiative on Tuesday, assuring travelers that the program, set to go into effect at 13 U.S. airports, does not compromise security. Gateside lets TSA PreCheck members access airport terminals if they do not have a plane ticket, allowing them to say goodbye to or greet loved ones at airport gates, shop in terminal stores, or dine in airport restaurants past security.
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“What about veterans that are coming back that their loved ones want to meet them at the gate?” Mullin said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends on Tuesday. “So we came up with a program that doesn’t compromise security at all. It’s just part of the ‘known passenger’ process, and we hope that it’ll help the passenger experience, because TSA sometimes kind of gets a bad name. And well we’re going to improve that.”
TSA PreCheck members and travelers with DHS “Known Traveler Numbers” are eligible for Gateside. Non-flyers must apply to access the terminal through the program between one and three days before they plan to visit the airport. Gateside participants will be screened by the TSA PreCheck screening lane.
After 9/11, the U.S. government created TSA and required airports to admit only traveling passengers into terminals. Before the attacks, people without boarding passes were allowed in airport terminals.
The announcement of Gateside comes just days before the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
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The program is in effect at 13 airports in states such as California, Texas, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Indiana, Nevada, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Utah. TSA says the program will expand to additional airports in the coming months.
The current participating airports are: Mesa Gateway Airport, John Glenn Columbus International Airport, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, Indianapolis International Airport, Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Little Rock’s Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers International Airport, Omaha’s Eppley Airfield, San Diego International Airport, and Salt Lake City International Airport.
