The company that wants to put fast-paced, paid security lanes at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is teaming with Delta Air Lines in a move that could bring the so-called Clear lanes to Atlanta by late summer.

Delta had initially opposed the paid express lanes, primarily aimed at business travelers willing to fork over $128 a year for a faster trip through security checkpoints. The airline feared they might interfere with Delta's own lines for premium passengers.

But the Atlanta-based carrier Monday said that after further study it will partner with Clear Inc. to operate its fast lanes in Delta terminals at New York's JFK International and LaGuardia airports and Los Angeles International Airport beginning this summer. Hartsfield-Jackson could begin testing the paid lanes as early as August.

Clear promises a five-minute trip through security.

Delta's contract also enables Clear to open enrollment stations in Delta Crown Rooms at Hartsfield-Jackson, which began soliciting fast-lane customers Monday.

About 8,000 people already have signed up for the program in Atlanta, even though Clear has no lanes yet at Hartsfield-Jackson. Clear Chief Executive Steven Brill predicts that his company could have as many as 100,000 customers in Atlanta within three years after the lanes open here.

Clear and airport officials are discussing when — and how — to begin a trial run for the paid lanes in Atlanta. The program would not cost the airport any additional money. Clear would pay the airport a portion of its revenues and would use an existing security lane at Hartsfield-Jackson for its customers.

"We're broadly talking about sometime this summer, maybe sometime in August," said Brill, who is best known as the founder of Court TV.

Clear operates its fast lanes in 17 airports and has about 175,000 customers nationwide.

Brill said his New York-based company discussed a partnership with Delta for more than a year before reaching an agreement.

"They, from the beginning, have had an approach to this that is much more open than some of their competitors," Brill said. "It's a big move forward for our company and the program. It changes the way the legacy airlines look at the program."

Clear customers are precleared by the federal Transportation Security Administration and get to use special lanes at security checkpoints, which they access with plastic cards encoded with biometric information — fingerprints and iris scans. Concierges help Clear customers put items on scanners and then retrieve and repack them.

Jeff Robertson, managing director of Delta's frequent-flier SkyMiles program, said the airline conducted extensive research on Clear lanes at other airports and how they affected overall security lines and wait times. He said the research showed the Clear lines were highly effective in Orlando, where Clear operated its first paid lanes and where it now has about 40,000 members.

"It's a trend, and it's a trend we want to be on board with," Robertson said. "We definitely think Clear is a good option for our customers."

About 89 million people a year move through Hartsfield-Jackson and about a quarter of those begin or end their flights here.