DFW is one of a handful of airports where the Transportation Security Administration has rolled out a new technology that matches a database of daily passenger names and birth dates with passengers booked on flights that day.
That means passengers can just present a driver’s license or passport and skip the second document, a boarding pass, that has been needed at checkpoints since the agency was formed in 2001.
“Every boarding pass looks different and as a screening officer, you are dealing with hundreds, if not thousands, in an hour,” said TSA spokeswoman Lorie Danker. “This technology puts the information on a screen in the same place.”
TSA rolled out the Credential Authentication Technology in 2019, allowing TSA agents a more comprehensive look at identifying information using REAL ID data. The machines were added to identify legitimate and fraudulent driver’s licenses and passports.
The newest iteration of the machines can link that driver’s license data with information airlines provide about who is traveling through DFW over the next 24 hours.
DFW started installing the newest machines earlier this year and another few months to train screening officers before it was ready for use.
There are only about 90 of the upgraded CAT scanners operating throughout the country, including 19 at DFW.
The machines are in every terminal, but DFW has more than 50 security lanes at 15 different TSA screening checkpoints in its terminals, so many passengers won’t know if they need to show a boarding pass until they approach security agents.
Passengers used to the old procedure can still hand over boarding passes, Danker said.
Dallas Love Field, which has just two security lanes at a single TSA checkpoint, should have the technology ready for use later this summer.
TSA is also working on adding new baggage scanning machines that could eliminate the need to take laptops and liquids out of luggage and backpacks, although those costly machines are being rolled out slowly at airports across the country.
The new technology comes just weeks after TSA and American Airlines started tests on a new facial scanning technology that lets American Airlines customers enrolled in TSA PreCheck skip showing ID cards . That program allows customers to upload their driver’s licenses and scan their faces into the American Airlines app, then present a QR code in the TSA PreCheck line.
Facial scanners verify the passenger’s face against photos in the app and on the identification card.
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