Airline pilots have long gone through standard airport security checks to gain access to airport gate areas.
A new pilot screening lane at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport that opened Tuesday is part of a program to change that, by allowing registered crew members who went through certain background checks and screening for their jobs to skip physical screening at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.
The Air Line Pilots Association, which co-sponsors the TSA-approved program, say that could also ease backlogs for passengers and improve security by removing pilots from regular security lines and allowing more resources for screening passengers.
It also reduces the need for pilots to cut in front of passengers at security to make their flights on time.
In Atlanta, one lane at the north security checkpoint is set aside for the Known Crewmember program. A pilot for a U.S. airline registered for the program must show a TSA-issued card for the program, along with identification. Pilots can still be subject to random screening.
About 30 other airports around the nation already have special crew lanes under the program.
Wolfgang Koch, a Delta Air Lines pilot and chair of his union’s aviation security committee, called it part of a move toward “smarter security.”
Flight attendants are being added to the program over time.
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