If you have not flown commercially in current months, there’s an opportunity you could be caught off guard by simply how a lot airport safety has modified at your native airport.
Whilst somebody who flies very often, I’ve been caught off guard by simply how totally different it’s. Throughout a current flight by Denver, I noticed passengers breezing by safety utilizing new expertise, I noticed all vacationers holding their footwear on for the primary time in many years, and I noticed firsthand what occurs when somebody’s ID doesn’t meet the brand new requirements. And I quickly realized these modifications weren’t particular to Denver, as I skilled related issues in Atlanta and New York’s JFK airport.
Fairly merely, TSA feels totally different today. Even for those who’ve flown just lately, there is a robust probability your subsequent expertise by airport safety will really feel just a little bit totally different
Over the previous a number of months, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Division of Homeland Security (DHS) have rolled out a number of modifications to the airport safety course of which have made a major influence on vacationers.
This is every thing you want to learn about what has modified over the previous a number of months, so you realize precisely what to anticipate in your subsequent flight.
Major TSA Changes Over the Previous Few Months
- REAL ID-compliant identification is now required
- All passengers hold their footwear on when going by airport safety
- TSA launches TSA PreCheck Touchless ID
- No lithium batteries in checked baggage
- TSA launches Households on the Fly program
REAL ID is Now Required
Maybe essentially the most high-profile change got here on Might 7, 2025, when the TSA started requiring all passengers to have a REAL ID-compliant type of identification. This could embody a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or a passport, in addition to quite a few options.
The REAL ID Act was truly initially handed by Congress in 2005 to “set requirements for the issuance of sources of identification, corresponding to driver’s licenses and identification playing cards.” Twenty years later, it lastly went into impact.
It is price noting that it’s technically attainable to fly with out a REAL ID-compliant license. Vacationers would simply want to arrive early to undergo the required extra screening.
Footwear On By way of Security
For over a decade, solely these with TSA PreCheck standing had been permitted to hold their footwear on whereas going by the TSA safety checkpoint. Now, that applies to all passengers.
On Tuesday, July 8, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem introduced that the TSA could be ending its longstanding “footwear off” coverage.
“Ending the ‘Footwear-Off’ coverage is the most recent effort DHS is implementing to modernize and improve traveler expertise throughout our nation’s airports,” Secretary Noem stated in an announcement on the time.
“We anticipate this alteration will drastically lower passenger wait instances at our TSA checkpoints, main to a extra nice and environment friendly passenger expertise. As all the time, safety stays our prime precedence. Thanks to our cutting-edge technological developments and multi-layered safety method, we’re assured we will implement this alteration whereas sustaining the very best safety requirements. This initiative is only one of many the Trump administration is pursuing to usher within the President’s imaginative and prescient for a brand new Golden Age of American journey.”
Clearly, this transfer made airport safety just a little extra handy and environment friendly for vacationers.
TSA Launches TSA PreCheck Touchless ID
Whereas the TSA has been making use of facial recognition expertise in its safety checkpoints for quite a few years, the company expanded its use of the expertise in a giant method this yr, rolling out TSA PreCheck Touchless ID.
Whereas many airports all through the nation are already utilizing facial recognition expertise to match passengers’ facial scans to their IDs, the TSA PreCheck Touchless ID works in a method that doesn’t even require passengers to use their ID on the checkpoint.
As an alternative of evaluating the traveler’s facial scan to the picture on their ID or passport, the TSA PreCheck Touchless ID compares the facial scan on the airport in opposition to a gallery of templates of pre-staged photographs that the passenger beforehand supplied to the federal government with their passport or visa.
“That is truly one of many extra thrilling developments is the frictionless ID for TSA pre-check the place all you might have to do is simply use your face and it mainly matches your face to your saved info,” safety knowledgeable Jake Parker, who’s the Senior Director of Authorities Relations of the Security Trade Affiliation (SIA), instructed me throughout a current telephone interview. “You do not even have to pull out your boarding cross or ID or something.”
Whereas Parker has a optimistic tackle the brand new expertise and doesn’t assume that it modifications a lot in regards to the safety course of or private privateness, a number of consultants disagree, with some expressing considerations about how the info is used and saved. Some lawmakers are at the moment working to restrict the expertise.
This new expertise is at the moment solely out there with choose airways at simply 15 airports all through the nation.
No Lithium Batteries in Checked Baggage
One other current change that the TSA has applied this yr is a ban on lithium and lithium-ion batteries in checked baggage as a result of the batteries are able to overheating and probably inflicting fires on flights.
This modification applies to most portal chargers and energy banks, which use lithium or lithium-ion batteries, in addition to units like cell telephones, tablets, and computer systems.
Whereas none of these objects could also be introduced aboard flights, transportable chargers could also be introduced aboard on carry-on baggage so long as they meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) necessities, which restrict the scale of the batteries.
“Lithium metallic (non-rechargeable) batteries are restricted to 2 grams of lithium per battery. Lithium ion (rechargeable) batteries are restricted to a score of 100 watt hours (Wh) per battery,” the FAA wrote in an announcement on its website.
The TSA has been cracking down on these specific guidelines recently, so it is price paying consideration earlier than your subsequent flight.
Households on the Fly
Airport safety is demanding sufficient while you’re flying by your self. Nonetheless, flying with kids provides a complete new stage of stress. Nonetheless, the TSA is transferring ahead with a change that may make flying with households lots simpler.
The Households on the Fly initiative, which has been rolled out at a number of airports all through the nation, gives vacationers with a devoted household lane at airport safety that might be sooner and fewer demanding for households with kids 12 and underneath.
“We perceive that air journey could be difficult, particularly for fogeys managing strollers, diaper baggage, and younger youngsters,” TSA Federal Security Director for Orlando Pete Garcia stated in an announcement final month.
“This program goes past comfort; it’s about addressing the distinctive wants of touring households to present a smoother, extra supportive expertise at our safety checkpoints. We’re devoted to making journey sensible, safe, and family-friendly.”
Whereas the initiative is just out there at a number of airports throughout the nation at the moment, it’s set to be expanded within the coming years and months because the TSA seems to be to broaden it nationwide.
Extra Changes on the Horizon
Clearly, issues have modified lots up to now few months. The purpose of those modifications is to make airport safety as “frictionless” and “seamless” as attainable, TSA Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl just lately defined throughout a current interview with Fox Information Digital.
Stahl additionally made it clear that he sees much more modifications on the horizon because the TSA seems to be to proceed making airport safety extra environment friendly for vacationers. He went so far as to say that he expects a “totally automated” safety screening course of in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.
“We actually are envisioning a totally frictionless course of, one which’s totally automated, that is tech-enabled, that’s as seamless as attainable,” Stahl stated earlier this yr.
“We’re going to do every thing we will,” he stated. “[Secretary Noem] goes to do every thing we will to herald side-by-side companions, the personal sector, public sector, airways, airports and different stakeholders to actually create an American journey and transportation safety system that each single American is pleased with.”
There have already been a whole lot of modifications, and it appears like we will anticipate much more within the coming months and years. Because the company continues to roll out modifications, it is good to keep watch over the TSA’s official website to keep up-to-date on every thing you want to know.
