‘Clear’ lanes debut at Atlanta airport

The world’s busiest airport officially opened its first paid, high-speed security lane Wednesday morning, a potential boon to entrepreneur Steven Brill and thousands of weary road warriors in metro Atlanta.

Brill’s New York-based company, Clear, promises its paying customers a five-minute trip through the security gates at the 20 airports where it now operates.

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Louie Favorite / lfavorite@ajc.com

Tim Conway helps Clear Registered Traveler customer Becky Briggs, of Jefferson, to the company’s location inside Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Wednesday morning.

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Clear has already signed up 11,000 customers in Atlanta who plunked down the $128 annual fee, and about 200,000 nationwide are using the service. Within a few weeks, it plans to operate two lanes at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport where business travelers have frequently found themselves snarled in 30-minute-plus lines.

“For us this is the 7th game of the World Series,” said Brill, who founded Court TV and the now-defunct magazine, Brill’s Content. “You can’t do anything new and innovative in aviation unless you are at Hartsfield-Jackson. This is the big league.”

Within five years, Brill plans to have 100,000 Clear customers in Atlanta, where 86 million people a year fly through Hartsfield-Jackson. About 30 percent of those customers begin or end their flights in Atlanta and use the security gates.

The Clear service primarily targets business travelers who spend a lot of time in airports.

Marietta resident Lee Dehihns III, a lawyer with Alston & Bird, flies about 30 times a year and signed up for Clear because he said it makes for a more predictable trip through security.

“The cost is worth it when you bill time like I do,” Dehihns said. “Standing in line is a waste of time.”

Clear customers pay a fee and then have biometric information (fingerprints in iris scans) imprinted on a plastic card. At the airport, they access the Clear lane with their card and have their biometric data confirmed by a scanner. They still must pass through metal detectors, but Clear provides assistants to help them with their carry-on luggage.

The Clear lane opened amid a major construction project at the airport aimed at improving security wait times for non-paying customers.

Hartsfield-Jackson is spending $25 million on gate improvements and within a month or so should have 32 security gates operating. The airport will also have a free “black diamond” lane that is intended to speed frequent travelers through security.

Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta said the new lanes should reduce wait times to 15 minutes or less.

Delta Air Lines — the airport’s primary carrier — AirTran and city officials, including Mayor Shirley Franklin, attended the ceremony to officially open the Clear operation.

Delta had initially opposed the Clear proposal, fearing it might interfere with priority lines aimed at its top-paying customers, but eventually backed the Clear lanes.

“By working closely with Clear, a process has been developed that provides our passengers with an additional option for navigating security lines, but does not impact our customers including our premium passengers,” said Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott.