US commission to improve airport security experience

A new team of travel security and facilitation experts from the public and private sector will aim to grow and modernise the travel experience in the US.

Launched in January by the US Travel Association, the Seamless and Secure Travel Commission will recommend actions to improve competitiveness, government focus and coordination.

An analysis by Euromonitor revealed the US to be deeply lagging behind global competitors and ranked the US 17th out of 18 top travel markets.

“US officials cannot ignore the bold, decisive steps other nations are taking to advance and modernise their travel economies,” said Geoff Freeman, US Travel Association President and CEO. “The United States should aspire to lead the way into a new era of seamless and secure travel and capitalise on the many opportunities to grow this critical sector.”

Currently the US has too few air traffic controllers to meet surging demand for air travel, which has led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to extend slot waivers through October of this year. This has resulted in a scale-back of scheduled air service, particularly in the New York-Washington DC corridor.

“While US airlines have hired well more than 55,000 new workers since 2022 to help stave off delays, there are approximately 1,200 fewer air traffic controllers than a decade ago,” a US Travel spokesperson told Cities Today. “The FAA bill passed through the US House could help this challenge, but we need the US Senate to work with the House to move it forward in conference.”

Further, the customs arrival process can be difficult. Arriving passengers on international flights can experience waits of up to two hours at peak times at some gateway airports.

And a sizeable problem within the government’s sphere of control is excessively long wait times for US visitor visas, which exceed 400 days on average in the country’s top visa-requiring markets.

Innovation Checkpoint to pilot in Las Vegas

In February the commission visited the Innovation Checkpoint at Las Vegas Reid International Airport where they viewed first-hand TSA’s PreCheck Touchless ID– the pilot phase of an autonomous self-screening checkpoint system to be launched 11 March. TSA also currently partners with United Airlines and Delta Air Lines to provide Touchless Identity Verification at eligible TSA PreCheck locations.

The commission is meeting monthly with multiple in-person field visits scheduled between now and the conclusion of their work at the end of this year including a gateway airport, a border visit and a major international airport.

The spokesperson added: “We want the United States to be the most visited nation in the world. We know it is the most desired nation to visit but it is currently the third most visited country (behind Spain and France). As of 2023, the US was just 84 percent recovered in terms of visitation and our market share has declined. These are trends that we must reverse. “

Image: Ronda Churchill for US Travel Association