text: Abstract 
   
   TSA PreCheck is the primary vehicle used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to promulgate its risk-based security strategy. To enroll in PreCheck requires travelers to pay a fee of $85 (or more, through programs like Global Entry or Nexus), which may provide an obstacle for some travelers. The TSA has promoted TSA PreCheck since it makes the air system more secure, provides faster security screening throughput for all travelers, and reduces TSA screening costs (both in manpower and equipment). This third point has led critics of the program to suggest that PreCheck should be offered at no cost to travelers. This paper explores this suggestion and suggests that for certain high volume travelers, offering them TSA PreCheck at no cost is economically attractive to the TSA. The additional benefits of a more secure air system and faster security screening throughput makes the no-cost option a viable strategy for ramping up the number of high volume travelers enrolled in TSA PreCheck. ||||| By offering frequent travelers free membership to the Transportation Security Administration’s expedited screening program, the agency can save money and speed up the screening process at airports across the country. 
   
   That is the conclusion of a study by professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who offered the idea as a solution to the TSA’s growing budget costs and long airport lines. 
   
   The study tackles a vexing problem for the TSA: getting more fliers to pay $85 for a background check to use an expedited screening line that lets fliers keep their shoes, coats and belts on and keep laptops in their luggage. About 12 million people have signed up for the program, dubbed TSA PreCheck, and similar programs for international travelers. 
   
   But the TSA had hoped to get 25 million travelers signed up for TSA PreCheck by now, a goal that the agency said would enable the TSA to reduce staff and speed up the screening lines at the nation’s airports. 
   
   The study, lead by Sheldon H. Jacobson, a computer science professor, calculated that if the TSA waived the $85 enrollment fee for 25 million travelers, it would lose out on $425 million a year in fees. (The $85 fee is for a five-year membership.) 
   
   But the study also found that if 25 million travelers taking at least six trips a year were to use the TSA PreCheck lines, the savings would total $459 million a year, thanks to lower staff expenses and equipment costs. 
   
   The net result would be annual savings of $34 million, according to the study, which was published in November’s Journal of Transportation Security. 
   
   “The analysis presented here suggests that the TSA can justify enrolling such high-value travelers in the program at no cost,” the study concludes. 
   
   Still, the report noted that some bad feelings might arise among travelers who are not frequent fliers and are not offered the fee waiver. Also, frequent fliers who are now paying the $85 fee may be upset when TSA PreCheck is suddenly offered free to new passengers, the study noted. 
   
   A TSA spokesman could not be reached for comment on the study but Jacobson, the lead author of the study, said the TSA asked for a copy of the study Monday. 
   
   hugo.martin@latimes.com 
   
   To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter. ||||| CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- There is an easy way to reduce lines at the airport, increase security and save the Transportation Security Administration money, according to a new study by University of Illinois researchers: waive the $85 fee for frequent fliers to enroll in the TSA PreCheck program, which allows pre-screened, verified travelers to go through expedited security at airports. 
   
   The study by computer science professor Sheldon H. Jacobson and graduate students Arash Khatabi and Ge Yu calculated the cost of extensive screening compared with expedited screening in terms of workforce labor hours and equipment. They found that costs saved by frequent travelers using expedited security exceeded the cost of waiving their enrollment fees for PreCheck. 
   
   "This is an easy case where spending some money will save the federal government more money," Jacobson said. "There is a transition period - the savings are realized over the first five years, and then in perpetuity. So if the federal government is looking for a way to save money, giving TSA PreCheck at no cost to high-volume, high-value fliers makes sense." 
   
   The study, published in the Journal of Transportation Security, looks at multiple scenarios of how many people would have to enroll at different travel frequencies for the fee waiver to be cost-efficient. The researchers found that the average travel frequency of those enrolling would have to be six round trips, or 12 screenings a year. 
   
   "We only look at the direct cost savings in labor and equipment. We don't even talk about the savings in time of the passengers who would no longer have to wait hours in line," Jacobson said. "That could add tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a year, which would be a bonus to the economy. More people could decide to fly, because of the time and cost savings." 
   
   The benefits would extend beyond the cost. According to Jacobson, an expert in aviation security, submitting every passenger to heightened security actually has the adverse affect of making air travel less safe by diluting resources that should be focused on high-risk, unknown passengers. TSA PreCheck reduces the number of unknowns by pre-screening passengers. A traveler who wishes to enroll in PreCheck pays an $85 fee to be subjected to a background check, and if nothing of concern is found, receives PreCheck certification for five years. 
   
   "The strength of PreCheck is the background check. It's not the item that we're trying to stop, it's the person with ill intent who we're trying to stop," Jacobson said. "PreCheck vets people and says, 'These people are not likely to be a problem to the air system.' They make sure you are who you say you are, and that your background shows no evidence that you are going to cause a problem." 
   
   Getting more travelers enrolled in PreCheck - particularly those who fly three or more round trips in a year - would produce the desired benefits, Jacobson said, yet enrollment has lagged far behind projected numbers. Waiving the fee might entice more travelers to enroll. 
   
   "We are saying to TSA and to the decision-makers in Washington, 'It's worth it to invest that money because you're going to get it back. It will facilitate more people going through checkpoints more quickly, make the system more secure and produce a cost savings for the TSA. It's a win-win-win situation,'" he said. 
   
   ### 
   
   Editor's notes: To contact Sheldon H. Jacobson, call 217-244-7275; email: shj@illinois.edu. 
   
   The paper "When should TSA PreCheck be offered at no cost to travelers?" is available online. 
   
   DOI: 10.1007/s12198-016-0176-z ||||| As the U.S. expanded a program to streamline airport screening for passengers willing to undergo background checks several years ago, the then-chief of the Transportation Security Administration dubbed it the “happy lane.” 
   
   For the small portion of travelers now in the program that provides access to short lines, it may fit John Pistole’s description. But for passengers who don’t participate, it has contributed to security screening delays and growing tensions at airports because far fewer people signed up than the agency projected. 
   
   Enrollment in the program known as PreCheck, and other similar plans, is less than half of the government’s goal of 25 million. Travel and security specialists blame inadequate marketing, the sometimes cumbersome application process and the mixed messages sent when many non-PreCheck passengers were allowed into the faster lines for several years. 
   
   “They just haven’t sold PreCheck. They’ve got to sell it as a benefit,” said Charles Leocha, a travel advocate who is supported by airlines and other related businesses. 
   
   Shoes On 
   
   Passengers in PreCheck -- who are allowed to get through security without taking off shoes and unpacking laptops after paying $85 and undergoing a background screening -- say it cuts time off their travel. 
   
   “I can spend more time at the office instead of spending time waiting in security lines," said Wayne Broadfield, 38, a Washington-based architect. He said he applied for PreCheck because he usually travels alone for his job, and it works well. "I wouldn’t fly without it.” 
   
   Hence the "happy lane" comment by Pistole at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado in 2013, when he expanded the program. 
   
   For more on efforts to cut down on airport waits, click here. 
   
   The idea was the agency would get a far more detailed look at the backgrounds of large numbers of travelers, allowing it to focus on a smaller number of people and improve efficiency, Pistole said Wednesday in an interview. 
   
   Pistole said the goal should still be processing about half of U.S. flyers through an expedited screening program like PreCheck, because most travelers are low-risk and the agency reduced the number of screeners because it was emphasizing security measures outside the screening lines. 
   
   “You would improve wait times dramatically,” said Pistole, who left the transportation security agency at the end of 2014. “It has the potential to be a game-changer, as I and others envisioned it five years ago, but people have to have confidence in the system that a true bad guy will be detected, hopefully, before he gets to the airport.” 
   
   Lagging Enrollment 
   
   But even Pistole said he’s surprised at the delays in getting the program to capacity. The lagging enrollment has been one of the reasons that thousands of passengers have missed flights this spring in long airport lines. 
   
   If PreCheck were operating at projections, it would ease the burden on the TSA, which is facing an increase in the number of travelers this summer. The agency has lost more than 5,000 screeners since 2011 as its budget was trimmed and it had to conduct more time-consuming security measures after Homeland Security Department Inspector General reports criticized the agency for missing hidden weapons and explosives. 
   
   But another factor in the long lines is PreCheck and how it was altered in the past year, according to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger and Pistole. 
   
   In its initial years, the TSA funneled regular passengers into PreCheck lanes -- where fliers don’t need to take off shoes, unpack laptops or remove liquids -- to ensure that there were enough people to justify the newly created lines. 
   
   Unacceptable Risk 
   
   That process was an “unacceptable risk to aviation security” because additional steps the agency was supposed to take to ensure people didn’t take advantage of the program often weren’t followed, Inspector General John Roth said in a report last year. 
   
   Neffenger, who took over TSA in July, halted that portion of the program, forcing passengers back into regular screening lanes, adding another burden that has swelled lines. 
   
   “One of my fundamental priorities is to dramatically expand the PreCheck population and to dramatically expand the capability to enroll people in PreCheck,” he told the House Homeland Security Committee at a hearing on Wednesday. 
   
   Neffenger’s shift in the agency’s priorities last year after Pistole left took some of the wind out of PreCheck, said Jeff Price, an aviation security consultant and professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver. 
   
   Trusted Traveler 
   
   “John Pistole was really the one who finally brought a trusted traveler program that TSA liked,” Price said. “After Pistole left, they had the big blowup over the screening failures, and Neffenger walked right into that buzzsaw.” 
   
   Responding to the screening failures became the focal point at Neffenger’s confirmation hearings, and the TSA’s priorities changed, according to Price. One of the first things they did was to slow down the lines and stopped worrying so much about PreCheck. 
   
   “Problem is, all of their future passenger projections were based on having 25 million people in PreCheck by this year,” he said. The program includes 2.8 million people. “When you make that much of a mis-estimation, you’re going to see what you see today.” 
   
   PreCheck is enrolling about 16,000 new members a day, up from 8,000 in April, TSA spokesman Michael England said. TSA grants PreCheck privileges to about 6.7 million other so-called trusted traveler programs, such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry. 
   
   Frequent Fliers 
   
   In the early days of the program under Pistole, passengers who qualified for PreCheck were drawn from airline frequent flier lists. In 2013, he expanded it to people who applied, paid the fee and were checked against lists of criminals and suspected terrorists. 
   
   As the fledgling program got off the ground, keeping PreCheck lines full by adding people from frequent flier programs and from regular lines was necessary. But it had the unintended consequence of leading people to think they didn’t need to actually apply, according to Stewart Verdery, a former assistant secretary at the Homeland Security Department who founded Monument Policy Group in Washington. 
   
   “It gave a totally mixed message about what the program was. It was a huge misstep,” said Verdery, whose firm represents MorphoTrust USA, the company that processes PreCheck applications. 
   
   Now that security lines are growing, the TSA has at times had to shut its PreCheck lanes to so screeners could focus on regular passengers, derailing the benefits of the program, Kerry Philipovitch, senior vice president for customer experience at American Airlines said at a congressional hearing Thursday. 
   
   “It’s a service TSA is selling and people are paying for, and they are incredibly frustrated when those lines are closed,” she said. 
   
   Offering Perks 
   
   Syracuse, New York, Hancock International Airport has boosted its PreCheck membership to about 40 percent of travelers because it has an enrollment center and offers perks such as free parking for members, Christina Callahan, the airport’s executive director, told the hearing. 
   
   Syracuse is in the district of Representative John Katko, the Republican who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s transportation security subcommittee. 
   
   One way to quickly expand the program would be to automatically add U.S. government workers who have already cleared a background check, according to Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice president for legislative and regulatory policy at the trade group Airlines for America. The TSA already automatically includes U.S. judges and members of Congress. 
   
   Pistole said PreCheck enrollment could be expanded by adding locations where people can apply. Applicants must apply in person to verify their identity at one of about 300 locations. The government is proposing using outside contractors, who would receive a portion of the PreCheck fee, to expand the number of locations and improve marketing. 
   
   Privacy and civil liberties questions have delayed that effort for years, Pistole said. The agency had to write rules and regulations and work out liability issues, he said. 
   
   “I had hoped it would be done before I left and they’re still working on it,” Pistole said.
target: – Millions of people pay for the privilege of leaving their shoes and belts on and their laptops in their bags during airport security screenings. But a study out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says by making the TSA's PreCheck program free—it's currently $85 for the regular background check and a five-year membership—lines will be made shorter, the TSA will save money, and everyone's life will be a whole lot easier at our congested airports, the Los Angeles Times reports. The problem is hitting the sweet spot of having enough travelers going through the expedited PreCheck lines to justify the cost expended on staffing those dedicated lines. The original goal by this point was to have 25 million signees in the program and others like it (such as Customs and Border Protection's $100 Global Entry program), but by May, per Bloomberg, not even half that number had come aboard. The study published in the Journal of Transportation Security checks out different scenarios to see which would end up paying off for both the TSA and consumers, per a release. Although getting rid of the five-year fee of $85 for 25 million travelers would result in losing $425 million a year, if every traveler who signed up went through PreCheck at least six times a year, the cost savings would amount to $459 million annually from decreased staff and equipment costs—a net savings of $34 million per year. "It will facilitate more people going through checkpoints more quickly, make the system more secure, and produce a cost savings for the TSA," Sheldon Jacobson, the study's lead author, says in the release. "It's a win-win-win situation." A noted drawback: If the fee were waived only for frequent fliers, occasional travelers might be miffed at having to pay, as would those already paid up.