VIDEO: Golden Triangle Regional Airport Offers TSA Pre-Check

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Flying can be a real hassle at times. From waiting in long lines to taking off clothing and digging through your bags for your laptop and other electronics it’s tiresome. Now, Golden Triangle Regional Airport wants to make the stress disappear with a new Pre-Check system.

GTR Airport Director Mike Hainsey says, passenger intake is up 20 percent since last month. The majority of passengers are on very tight schedules.

“80% of our travelers are business travelers travelling to and from the Golden Triangle Area, many of them from over seas,” says Hainsey.

To help those customers, GTRA is joining hundreds of other airports using the TSA Pre-Check Program.

“There are over 3.8 million travelers that have signed up and been approved for pre-check out of 160 airports out of the 440 airports in the country,” says Mississippi’s TSA Director David Wynn.

This means shorter waits at the airport.

“With the Pre-Check Program it just expedites the process for getting through screening and getting on the airplane and on your way,” says Hainsey.

“And it also affords them the opportunity to keep their jackets on, keep light jackets on, keep shoes on, laptops in bags, liquid-gels and aerosols properly contained. You don’t have to take any of those things out,” says Wynn.

The TSA wants passengers to know the speedy process doesn’t take away from the security of the check.

“Everybody who wants to be in the TSA Pre-Check Program is vetted, which means obtaining their finger prints and checking them against any terrorist watch list and also a criminal background check is conducted,” says TSA Director Sari Koshetz.

Everyone who steps on the plane is checked out before takeoff.

“No one can go through a security check point at a federalized airport unless they’ve been checked against ‘secure flight’ which is a TSA program that runs every name against databases before they can even print their boarding pass,” says Koschetz.

GTRA is allowing passengers all week to sign up for TSA Pre-Check at the airport but officials say the best way to pre-enroll online at TSA.gov.

Categories: Local News

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