The head of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration wants more and more passengers to take advantage of faster security by using his agency's PreCheck program; he told regional airline executives his goal is 75%.
That's a pretty ambitious goal, since at present, PreCheck is handling about a third of daily passengers in U.S. airports. That may not seem a real figure to travelers who've seen long lines at the regular lanes, but it reflects that the average clearance time for PreCheck members is ten minutes or less so lines don't often back up there.
And David Pekoske, the TSA administrator, isn't worried that will change as more people move to the PreCheck side: "We will put whatever effort we need to ensure that wait time for PreCheck stays at 10 minutes or less," he said. "We'll open up more PreCheck lanes and close standard lanes."
From the agency's viewpoint, PreCheck not only saves travelers time, but takes less manpower to operate checkpoints and screening. With significant growth in the past 18 months, there are now 20 million PreCheck members, along with another 20 million who use it as part of Global Entry or other eligible programs.
The program now includes passengers on 104 airlines with the addition last week of Caribbean Airlines and Red Air.
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