Registered Traveler Program returns – but only to Indianapolis airport

by Scott Carmichael on

Starting today, passengers at Indianapolis airport can speed through the security checkpoint with a new Registered Traveler Program service from iQueue.

iQueue picks up where Clear left off when they went bankrupt, and is even offering previous Clear customers 6 months of free service when they enroll.

At the moment, iQueue is only available in Indianapolis, but they obviously have plans to expand the service to other airports.

My biggest concern with the return of these services is going to be fragmentation – The remnants of Clear were purchased last week, and the new owners plan to restart the service by fall 2010. The worst possible scenario will be having two or three different providers at different airports – requiring a separate membership for each one.

Membership in iQueue costs $149 for a year – and enrollment can be done on their site.

Shoe Sniffer

by Iva Skoch on

The TSA has just approved a new scanner by GE Security, which allows airline passengers to step into/onto a kiosk that not only scans their shoes (no shoe removal necessary!), but it also has an explosives trace detector built in.

This means it performs the equivalent of the “air puff” test, but it actually tests the passenger’s fingers for traces of explosives.

Unfortunately, it will only be used for those folks that have signed up for the poorly-implemented Registered Traveler Program, which charges passengers $100/year…and has thus far only been implemented in Orlando.

But, last time I was at Newark, TSA folks were simply waving us through the air-puff machine, even though it was showing the red, “stop” hand sign, just proving there’ll always be a human element thrown into these tests.