Trusted traveler on its way to airport (SunHerald. Wed, Jan. 30, 2008)
GULFPORT --An increasingly popular program designed to help trusted travelers fly through airport security checkpoints is bound for Gulfport-Biloxi International, officials are expected to announce today.
The airport will hold a press conference this afternoon to uncork its new trusted traveler program at 3 p.m., and pre-enrollment in the program will begin immediately after.
More than six years after it was proposed following 9/11, trusted traveler programs are operating at more than a dozen U.S. airports. Several other airports are reportedly shopping for private companies to operate the government's Registered Traveler program.
Vigilant Solutions, a Florida security firm, will operate the program at Gulfport-Biloxi International by issuing so-called smart cards to trusted travelers, for an annual membership fee, to quickly get through a separate airport security lane.
Travelers must pass a government background check and submit biometric information - fingerprints or an iris scan - to be installed on the smart cards and read by an electronic device at the gate.
The Registered Traveler program is run by the Transportation Security Administration. Vigilant Solutions is one of only a handful of companies approved by TSA to operate the program in U.S. airports.
Vigilant Solutions calls its program the Preferred Traveler program.
"We are very pleased that Vigilant Solutions has selected Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport to introduce its Preferred Traveler concept in Mississippi," said Frank Genzer, airport authority chairman.
Vigilant's smart cards are accepted at airports in Albany, N.Y., Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, LaGuardia, Little Rock, Newark, N.J., New York's JFK, Orlando, Reno-Tahoe, San Francisco, San Jose and Westchester, Pa.
