Travelers arriving in the U.S. and continuing on to other cities will have an easier time soon as TSA gets ready to test allowing baggage to travel straight through without being retrieved and re-checked.
If planned test runs are successful, that could eventually save travelers anywhere from half an hour to a couple of hours and, TSA hopes, save a lot of congestion and overtime on busy travel days, especially since travelers would no longer have to leave secure areas and go back in through security again.
Congress, in 2022, authorized TSA to collaborate with airlines and its overseas counterparts on the plan. TSA will select up to six overseas airports for the test, picking ones where it considers security and baggage handling to be equivalent to its own standards.
Once implemented, arrivals from those airports would be able to collect their bags at their final destination airport; at the first arrival airport they would clear immigration still airside and then continue airside to their next gate.
TSA has given no names or dates yet, but says that trials will start within the next year.
