LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Getting through security can be the worst part of traveling, but that could all change thanks to new technology being tested in Las Vegas.
Federal airport security officials unveiled passenger self-screening lanes Wednesday at Harry Reid International Airport, with plans to test it for use in other cities around the country.
The Transportation Security Administration began developing the new system five years ago to make screening more efficient and give passengers more autonomy. The system is designed to let passengers control the pace of their screening.
It’s something passengers like Patricia Messerly and her son think could help reduce the wait time in security lines. “We’ve gotten used to it now when you go to grocery stores with self-checkouts,” she said.
The Transportation Security Administration checkpoint being tested in Las Vegas — initially only for TSA PreCheck customers, and only in the English language — incorporates a screen with do-it-yourself instructions for travelers on how to smoothly pass themselves and their carry-on luggage through pre-flight screening with little or no help from uniformed TSA officers.
Testing is being done at a unique “innovation checkpoint” the TSA unveiled in 2019 in Harry Reid airport’s sprawling international arrivals terminal. The checkpoint already features screening lanes with instruction displays and estimated wait times.
Passengers with TSA precheck going through security at Terminal 3 at Reid Airport will be able to try out the new screening system for the next several months.
It works like this: A passenger approaches one of six automated stations and places items in a bin like normal. But passengers will notice fewer security personnel. A typical checkpoint has about a dozen TSA officers, while this new system only needs about five.
“While there is not a transportation security officer standing there, there is a screen with a help assist button,” explained John Fortune, the Screening at Speed Program Manager at the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology office. “So, if you have a problem or question you can press that button and you’ll be connected to a live transportation security officer.”
Instead of a boxy belt-fed device using a stack of gray trays, the futuristic-looking baggage and personal-belongings inspection system looks like a scaled-down magnetic resonance imaging machine. It uses an automated bin return that sanitizes trays with germ-killing ultraviolet light between users.
After placing their items on the conveyor belt, travelers will move to the line for screening, which is also automated, said Christina Peach, the Deputy Assistant Administrator of Requirements and Capabilities Analysis at the TSA.
Travelers step into a separate clear glass body scanning booth with a video display inside showing how to stand when being sensed with what officials said is the type of “millimeter wave technology” already in use around the country. A reporter with the Associated Press found it sensitive enough to identify a forgotten handkerchief in a pocket. He did not have to remove his shoes.
“It’s got automated screening lanes, officers in remote locations. It’s got entry and exit doors and advanced imaging technologies, so it really is a new approach,” Peach said.
Some questions remain, such as how many passengers the system can process in an hour. Also, what will be the full cost of the system? And what will the TSA workforce look like in the future?
“I assume it’s going to reduce the amount of jobs for TSA workers, which hopefully means they are going to reinvest it into the airport,” passenger Aidan Messerly said.
In 2021, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology office awarded four contracts to three companies for this system, including Micro-X Ltd., Vanderlande Industries Inc., and Voxel Radar.
The system, which will need to meet TSA security standards, will be tested for several months before the TSA can review and decide whether to roll out the checkpoints in other airports.
Officials said they’ll also time how quickly travelers pass through the prototype during evaluations this year. (Nationally, nearly all passengers who pay to enroll in the TSA PreCheck program pass through screening in 10 minutes or less, agency spokesman R. Carter Langston said, while regular traveler and carry-on screening takes about 30 minutes.)
In 2022, Harry Reid International Airport was the seventh-busiest passenger airport in the U.S., ranked by Airports Council International behind New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. In 2023, the Las Vegas airport handled a new record of 57.6 million arriving and departing passengers.
The Transportation Security Administration reported its busiest day ever at the airport last month, screening nearly 104,000 travelers and their luggage as they headed for airline flights Feb. 12, the day after the NFL Super Bowl was played at Allegiant Stadium.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
