While cheaptravel options, including cheap airplane tickets, and cheap vacation packages maketravel affordable for many would be travelers the hassle faced at airports makemany wonder why bother leaving home.
The Department of Homeland Security wants to sign up 25million Americans into PreCheck and Global Entry prescreening programs. The increasing numbers of travelers routedthrough expedited screening lines have multiple benefits:
Prescreenedfliers spend less time passing through security checkpoints.
NonPreCheck passengers benefit from shorter lines as more travelers sign up forprescreening.
Airlines,faced with the costs of re-accommodating thousands of delayed travelers whomissed their flights would benefit from seeing checkpoint congestion eased.
Less stress, fewer missed flights, and less time wasted inlong lines sounds awfully attractive. Yet at the end of 2016 only 2.5 million signed up for expedited securityprocessing.
A recent study found that a significant disincentive tosigning up for PreCheck is the $85 fee. The price is widely perceived as too costly, whether justifiable ornot.
Critics of the price have contended that making PreCheckfree would not only increase enrollment, with its associated benefits, but alsoresult in a net savings for the Transportation Security Administration.
Waiving the enrollment fee for 25 million travelers who flysix or more roundtrips per year would save the TSA more money in labor andequipment ($459 million annually) than it would earn from the $85 fee ($425million annually). Less revenue tied toan even greater decrease in expenses would result in a net gain of $34 million.
While it remains to be seen how to limit the fee waiver toonly high frequency fliers, the potential annual savings of tens of millions ofdollars make this a problem worth figuring out.
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