Airline Security 'EZ Pass' A Reality At JFK

Frequent fliers are jumping for joy these days. The ones lucky enough to travel through a certain terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, that is.That's because JFK now has exclusive rights to an EZ Pass-style system through security at Terminal 7.Katie DeGraff spent a good part of Tuesday going through the same old security drill -- inching along."You're at the airport, it's going to take two hours to get on the plane," DeGraff said.Not if Steve Brill has anything to say about it.Brill demonstrated his company's new Clear Registered Traveler System, which has been going strong in a pilot program at Orlando's airport with more than 30,000 users.Using a card, Brill checked in at the security kiosk, and provided a retina scan or fingerprint."When it works well, it's like EZ Pass," Brill said."There could be a reduction in how long it takes you to go through the line of 15 to 45 percent. That has a multiplier effect on wait times.""Clear" is privately funded, relying on an annual fee of $100 from each user. For some it is not worth it because they don't travel enough, but for frequent fliers, it's just the ticket."If it saves me 15 minutes each time, that adds up," said Reed Talada, a consultant from Seabright, N.J., who travels by air once a week.Talada signed up Tuesday and will get his card in the mail after a government background check.For now, the new service will follow the old rules regarding clothes. The jackets and coats come off, as do the shoes, but new technology has been installed and will be phased in so everything else can stay on.The Transportation Safety Administration is expected to approve the shoe scan and other technology as soon as Clear service expands to airports in Indianapolis, San Jose and Cincinnati by the month.Clear also expects to open another set of security kiosks at Kennedy's Terminal 1.
Source:http://www.kutv.com
As in the days of Noah....