On the Road: Growing Pains for PreCheck Airport Security Program

All he wanted was some information about PreCheck, the program of the Transportation Security Administration that gives eligible fliers a quick-pass through airport security. His boarding pass had the PreCheck certification, but the PreCheck lane was available only in a terminal separate from the one where his flight was to depart at Newark Liberty International Airport.

After 15 minutes with one of those dreaded automated phone systems, Mr. Ax finally got through to an airline agent and inquired politely about the machinations of getting through PreCheck in one terminal while flying out of another. Couldn’t be done easily, it turned out.

“The guy starts yelling at me, ‘That’s not my problem, that’s the T.S.A.’s problem!’ ” he said. “He was literally shouting.”

Mr. Ax says he does about 85 concerts a year, about 50 of them requiring air travel. He belongs to Global Entry, the popular “trusted traveler” program of the Customs and Border Protection agency that gives a quick-pass re-entry into the country for international travelers. Global Entry members also are automatically enrolled in PreCheck.

“So that’s fantastic. But I’ve had PreCheck for six months, and unfortunately I’ve been able to use it exactly once, at O’Hare, despite all the flying I do,” he said.

Mr. Ax’s frustration with PreCheck partly reflects high expectations that bump into the realities of how limited the program really has been so far. It’s operating in 40 airports, but the availability is limited to participating airlines, and only at certain terminals.

Last week, the T.S.A. announced an aggressive expansion of PreCheck that the agency says will add 60 new airports by the end of this year. Participating airlines now are Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian, United, US Airways and Virgin America. JetBlue and Southwest are expected to join the program soon, the agency said.

When it began in October 2011, PreCheck was available only to high-status, high-revenue passengers chosen by individual airlines to participate — an approach that irritated many frequent travelers who failed to make the invitation lists. Then PreCheck also became open to those who belong to Global Entry and other so-called known-traveler programs. That prompted many travelers to join Global Entry, even if they didn’t fly internationally. Global Entry costs $100 for five years and requires a background check, fingerprinting and a personal interview.

In July, John S. Pistole, the T.S.A. administrator, announced a major expansion to increase the numbers of travelers in PreCheck, starting this fall in an initiative that he has referred to as “Global Entry Lite.” Travelers will be able to apply directly for PreCheck, paying an $85 fee good for five years, and reporting to airport enrollment centers for fingerprinting. That expansion is expected to start at two airports, Washington Dulles and Indianapolis, and roll out more widely through the fall.

The ambitious goal of the T.S.A. is to have 25 percent of all airline travelers in the United States eligible for expedited screening by the end of this year through PreCheck. On Monday, the T.S.A. said it would also offer PreCheck on a case-by-case basis to randomly selected passengers based only on the information they provide at booking.

Still, there’s a good amount of confusion about PreCheck. For one thing, even some frequent business travelers that I hear from who belong to Global Entry don’t realize that to also qualify for PreCheck, they have to enter their Global Entry identification numbers in their frequent-flier profiles of participating airlines. (Those entering PreCheck in the new application process will receive what the T.S.A. calls a Known Traveler Number.)

Once enrolled, a traveler should see the PreCheck certification on the bar code of each boarding pass from a participating airline. But that doesn’t always ensure an expedited passage through security, in not having to take off shoes or remove laptops from their cases. A certain amount of randomness is built into the system, so a passenger with PreCheck still may occasionally be directed instead to the regular screening lanes.

The T.S.A. has detailed information on PreCheck, including links for participating airlines and locations of PreCheck lanes in the 40 airports where the program is now operating.

Incidentally, I hear nothing but good things from readers about Global Entry, which allows returning travelers to be whisked through international airport border-entry points using special kiosks that eliminate those hated long waits in line. PreCheck is a work in progress.

“Global Entry works very well. It’s just excellent. PreCheck, however? They keep advertising it, but the truth is, it’s just not available in many places yet,” Mr. Ax said.

On the Road: Fast Airport Screening Is in Store for More

That’s terrific news for most frequent travelers, who have been envious of the relatively small number of select fliers who are so far able to use PreCheck, which allows preapproved travelers to use special security lanes when flying on participating airlines at 40 airports, without having to take laptops out of bags or remove shoes, belts, light outerwear and some other articles.

So why is it that I am a little skeptical about the prospects for a timely realization of this initiative?

It’s a work in progress, and a welcome one, too. But let’s just say the agency hasn’t exactly been on a roll lately. Last month, the director, John S. Pistole, was maneuvered by flight attendants’ unions and their supporters in Congress into an embarrassing retreat from a rules relaxation that he had previously insisted would stay in place — one allowing passengers to carry small pocketknives. A month before that, under Congressional orders, the T.S.A. removed from checkpoints the last of about 250 widely criticized Rapiscan body-scanner machines, which it had vigorously defended for years against claims that the X-ray technology invaded personal privacy.

The agency didn’t make Mr. Pistole available for comment on the new PreCheck plan. But on July 19, when he first announced the expansion to an applauding audience of security policy makers, corporate technology representatives and news media at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Mr. Pistole deftly dodged a question about the retreat on pocketknives. Instead, he changed the subject to what he has described as the agency’s main concern, the overriding potential threat posed by terrorists with concealed explosives.

Certainly, there has been little opposition to the idea of expanding PreCheck, which began in October 2011 with enrollment mainly limited to the highest-level elite-status fliers nominated by participating airlines. Later, PreCheck also became available to those enrolled in Global Entry, a popular Customs and Border Protection program that lets travelers returning from abroad re-enter the country without enduring long lines at passport control and Customs. Instead, they use special fast-pass kiosks where their fingerprints are verified. About 700,000 travelers are now enrolled in Global Entry.

Mr. Pistole, who has referred to the new PreCheck initiative as “Global Entry Lite,” has long advocated reducing the focus on the things passengers carry, while emphasizing multiple levels of so-called risk-based security, including trusted or known-traveler programs. He said earlier that roughly 40 million of the 640 million passengers who annually pass through security at the nation’s 450 commercial airports were frequent fliers, mainly business travelers. These fliers are presumably “known and trusted,” and as such are prospects for lighter security measures.

The PreCheck expansion will start this fall with enrollment centers at two airports, Washington-Dulles and Indianapolis. More enrollment centers will be opened as PreCheck is significantly expanded beyond the 40 airports where it is now in place. In the first year, the T.S.A. estimates that about 383,000 people will be processed.

Applicants apply online, entering information for a background check and paying an $85 fee. They then report to enrollment centers for fingerprinting. Within three weeks, an approved passenger will receive a Known Traveler Number that allows PreCheck eligibility to appear on airline boarding passes. Enrollment centers will be opened throughout the fall at airports nationwide, an agency spokesman said.

As I said, enrolling 25 percent of travelers by the end of this year sounds pretty optimistic. Global Entry, for example, is so popular that many new applicants report long waits for appointments at some enrollment centers for fingerprinting and a personal interview. A personal interview isn’t required for PreCheck. Still, new enrollment centers will need to be built, in many cases at airports where security areas are already seriously crowded and limited by space.

Airport managers welcome broadening PreCheck as “the best thing since sliced bread,” said Christopher Bidwell, the vice president for security and facilitation at the Airports Council International-North America. But he added that some managers wondered “what it’s going to look like at smaller airports that need to make space available for new enrollment centers” once the program expanded widely.

The T.S.A. guidelines for airports using PreCheck, incidentally, require that the special lanes use the old-fashioned walk-through metal detectors, which allow passengers to be screened while carrying nonmetallic items like wallets and wearing belts or light jackets. That would seem to thwart the T.S.A.’s expensive years-old plan to eventually replace all walk-through metal detectors with new body-scan machines that can detect anything on the body or in clothing, not just metal. While the Rapiscan X-ray machines are now gone, similar body-scanners that use less controversial millimeter-wave technology remain in place at most checkpoints. Once PreCheck expands, more metal detectors will need to be put back into service, I would think.

As I said, it’s a work in progress.

Square Feet: Hong Kong’s Old Airport Reopens as a Cruise Ship Terminal

HONG KONG — It was perhaps the most spectacular flight approach in the world: amid mountains, seas and frequently tempestuous winds, aircraft nearing Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong would stage a stomach-churning right turn, glide over the densely populated Kowloon Peninsula and land on a runway that jutted straight out into the sea.

Starting Wednesday, passengers approaching the old runway will do so at crawl speed — and from the sea, rather than from the air.

After 15 years of lying idle, the former airport will reopen its gates to the world’s travelers — as a cruise ship terminal at the southern end of the old runway.

Gleaming silver, and 850 meters, or about half-mile long, the new terminal building has airy immigration and check-in halls reminiscent of, yes, an airport. A large, manicured rooftop garden with 360-degree views of the Hong Kong skyline will open to the public in the next few months. And the terminal’s two berths will be able to accommodate the largest cruise ships in the world — behemoths more than 300 meters long that can carry thousands of passengers.

The first of those giants — the 15-deck, 310-meter Mariner of the Seas, operated by Royal Caribbean International and carrying more than 3,000 passengers — is scheduled to dock at the terminal Wednesday evening.

The new cruise ship terminal cost 8.2 billion in Hong Kong dollars, or about $1 billion, and was designed by the architectural firm of Norman Foster, whose other designs include plans for the renovation of the New York Public Library. Mr. Foster’s firm also designed the larger airport that replaced Kai Tak in July 1998.

For now, most of the old airport, including the area where the terminal building once stood, lies empty, the shiny new cruise terminal awkwardly isolated at the far end of the former runway. The nearest neighborhoods — Kwun Tong and Kowloon Bay — are somewhat rundown, and until planned public transportation connections are completed in the coming years, the terminal building’s rooftop gardens will be tough for ordinary visitors to reach.

While Hong Kong is home to one of the busiest container ports in the world, cruise companies held off factoring the terminal into their itineraries until it was actually finished. Just 19 ships are scheduled to dock at the new terminal in the next 12 months.

Still, industry executives say they believe that traffic will gradually increase as cruise activity in Asia picks up, and Hong Kong policy makers see the project as crucial to expanding tourism in the city.

Gregory So, the Hong Kong secretary for commerce and economic development, said at a media briefing last week that the new terminal would “greatly enhance the berthing capacity for cruise ships in Hong Kong, thereby enhancing our competitiveness and attractiveness.”

The decision to convert the old airport site into a cruise terminal is, in essence, a bet on Asia’s growing appetite for travel.

Over the last few decades, thanks to rising affluence and improved transport links, Asia has evolved from being primarily a destination for wealthy Westerners to being an increasingly important source of new travelers — Asians journeying to places within the region and beyond. Travel from mainland China, in particular, has soared, making the country both the biggest source of foreign tourists in the world, and the biggest spender in global tourism, according to the World Tourism Organization.

This growth has yet to extend into the cruise ship segment, which remains overwhelmingly focused on travel within the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Just under two-thirds of the roughly 21 million people in the world who will take a cruise this year will come from North America, and about 27 percent will come from Europe, according to Cruise Market Watch, an American firm that compiles data on the industry. Only about 7 percent come from Asia.

In part, that is because Asians have only recently begun to approach travel as something that involves relaxation and leisure, rather than an activity focused on shopping and sightseeing, said Liu Zinan, chairman of the Asia Cruise Association and vice president of Asia for Royal Caribbean.

The lack of terminals that accommodate cruise ships also has hampered growth in the region.

Boeing 787 at Boston Airport Returns to Gate After Fuel Leak

The 787 in the previous incident experienced an electrical fire Monday at Logan, said Richard Walsh, a Massport spokesman. That plane also was operated by Japan Airlines.

The plane leaking fuel had left the gate in preparation for takeoff on a flight to Tokyo when the spill of about 40 gallons was discovered, Walsh said. No fire or injuries occurred, he said.

The Dreamliner was towed back to the gate, where passengers disembarked and were waiting for a decision on the status of the flight, he said.

"The airline will make that determination," Walsh said.

A Japan Airlines spokeswoman, Carol Anderson, said the plane returned to the gate because of a mechanical issue, but said exact details were yet to be confirmed.

Boeing said it was aware of the issue and was working with its customer. Boeing stock dropped 3.8 percent to $73.24 in afternoon trading, following a 2 percent decline on Monday.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal, citing a source, reported that United Airlines found a wiring problem on one of its 787s, an issue that affects the same electrical system that caused the fire aboard a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston on Monday.

United spokeswoman Christen David said United inspected its 787s after the Boston fire incident, but she declined to discuss the findings, or to confirm the Journal report.

The Journal reported that the airline found improperly installed wiring in electrical components associated with the auxiliary power unit.

U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that the battery in the auxiliary power unit aboard the Japan Airlines jet had "severe fire damage" and that surrounding damage was limited to components and structures within about 20 inches. It said the power unit was operating when the fire was discovered.

The agency sent one investigator on Monday and added two more on Tuesday. The Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, the Japan Transport Safety Board and Japan Airlines also are involved in the probe.

The NTSB said Tuesday's fuel leak would not warrant an investigation because there was no accident.

The leak comes after the FAA in December ordered inspections of all 787s after fuel leaks were found on two aircraft operated by foreign airlines. The leaks stemmed from incorrectly assembled fuel line couplings, which could result in loss of power or an engine fire, the FAA said.

Walsh, the Massport spokesman, said the leak in Boston was noticed at 12:25 p.m. ET Tuesday, as JAL flight 007 was taxiing toward the runway for takeoff. Crews used an absorbent to soak up the spilled fuel, Walsh said.

Some analysts had raised concerns about Boeing's 787 after the electrical fire onboard the JAL jet on Monday. Today's fuel leak caused further alarm about the impact on public perception of Boeing and the Dreamliner.

"We're getting to a tipping point where they go from needing to rectify problems to doing major damage control to the image of the company and the plane," said Richard Aboulafia, a defense and aerospace analyst with Teal Group, a consulting firm based in Fairfax, Virginia.

"While they delivered a large and unexpected number of 787s last year, it's possible that they should have instead focused on identifying glitches and flaws, rather than pushing ahead with volume production," he said.

Aboulafia said there is still no indication that the plane itself is flawed.

"It's just a question of how quickly they can get all the onboard technologies right, and whether or not the 787 and Boeing brands will be badly damaged," he said.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott in New York and Karen Jacobs in Atlanta.; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Cynthia Osterman, Andrew Hay and Gunna Dickson)

US court weighs Arabic flash cards, airport stop

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A U.S. appeals court will hear arguments Friday over a lawsuit filed by a college student handcuffed at a Philadelphia airport and questioned for hours about his Arabic language flash cards.