Nineteen automated Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening lanes will be installed at New York’s John F Kennedy International airport by the end of this month, a New York/New Jersey Port Authority official said in an interview with the New York Post.
The automated lanes, 17 of which were also recently opened at Newark International Airport, improve passenger-screening efficiency by an estimated 30 per cent, according to Jeanne Olivier, head of security at Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia airports.
The Newark lanes are for use by United Airlines passengers, while the ones at JFK are being underwritten by Delta Air Lines and American Airlines.
The improved screening technology was first installed at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport. The TSA previously announced plans to add the equipment to 21 of the busiest airports in the US.
The new lanes have large countertops designed to hold more passenger bins, and conveyor belts that move the bins into the x-ray machine and then return them to the front of the line for use by other passengers.
Airport officials say that while the machines get passengers through security more quickly, the added efficiency hasn’t translated into the need for fewer TSA agents at checkpoints. That could change once travellers have become more acclimated to the new system, however.
