The International Air Transport Association, (IATA), is looking into new technology that could drastically speed up your wait in the security line in the future. They are working on developing a high-tech screening system that filters passengers according to the risk they present and scans and “sniffs” them as they pass through, which would take a fraction of the time we are used to for a current security check. The IATA is also trying to determine if combining customs and immigration at the same screening station would be possible and beneficial to the traveler.
The IATA displayed the first mock-ups of this passenger screening system at an annual meeting of airline chiefs in Singapore. This three-channel screening system will categorize the traveler according to risk. The three categories are: “enhanced”, which is the highest risk, “normal”, and “known traveler”, which is the least risky of the categories.
“It’s the future we envision about 5 to 7 years from now,” said Ken Dunlap, IATA’s global director for security and travel facilitation. “We’re looking at a way of increasing security where we don’t treat every passenger that has a pair of toe-nail clippers as a potential terrorist. We’re looking for a paradigm that is based on looking for bad people, not only bad things,” he said at the IATA meeting in central Singapore.
With all the added security measures in recent years, the time it takes to actually get on a plane has greatly increased, which leads to more stress for travelers and worrying about invasive pat-downs. This future technology will aim to rapidly screen passengers, (depending on the channel they go through), and then proceed to an advanced X-ray, shoe scanning, full-body screening, liquid detection and an electronic “sniffing” for traces of explosives. While the explosive-”sniffing” technology does exist now, it still needs refining before it can be used in the way IATA is hoping to use it.
Dunlap said 2.8 billion people were expected to travel by air this year, rising to an estimated 16 billion by 2050; that meant the current airport security screening systems and procedures needed to change, and drastically. “What we’d like to have a passenger do is not break stride and walk right through to the checkpoint,” Dunlap said.
While this new technology won’t necessarily be in place for your next business trip to your San Diego corporate housing destination this year, it is definitely something to look forward to in the future.