Clear, the company that offers expedited access to airport security screening, says it has processed more than 225,000 passengers at the Orlando and Denver airports since it started up last November, and that it has now signed on more than 20,000 members at Denver. Clear membership, which costs $179 a year for individuals, provides fast entry to security checkpoints through Clear’s proprietary lanes at those two airports; members undergo a background check and receive biometric ID cards that give them access to the Clear lanes. The new Clear (www.CLEARme.com) replaced the original company, which went out of business in 2010; it had operated a similar system at some 20 major airports in the U.S. While the Clear system may get members to the checkpoint faster, they still undergo the same screening process as other travelers.

The Transportation Security Administration is planning to start testing a new risk-based screening system this fall at a few airports, in which pre-approved frequent travelers will be sent through a separate screening checkpoint with expedited procedures. If the tests go well and it is rolled out nationwide, it could make Clear membership seem less desirable, but Clear says it supports the TSA program. “We strongly support TSA’s vision to focus on identifying bad people, not just finding bad objects,” said Clear president J. Bennet Waters. “The combination of government information and commercially available data provides a very powerful opportunity to assess a traveler’s risk to aviation security. The challenge is in how to use both sets of data simultaneously without impacting travelers’ privacy or requiring people to participate. Clear addresses this challenge.” Waters said Clear looks forward to working with TSA, airlines and airports in support of TSA’s risk-based screening. The company said it is also involved in negotiations with other airports to expand Clear’s service.

After almost two weeks of a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration due to congressional inaction, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) said late last week that an agreement had been reached that would restore funding for the agency into mid-September. That’s when Congress returns from recess and can resume discussions about the longer-term fate of the agency’s budget. For now, the agreement means that the 4,000 FAA employees who have been out of work for the last couple of weeks can return to their jobs, and so can tens of thousands of construction workers whose FAA-funded projects at airports nationwide had been suspended. At the heart of the impasse was disagreement over continuing subsidies for small community air service, as well as a Republican demand to insert language that would make it more difficult for transportation workers to unionize. The debate over the Essential Air Services program (which provides government subsidies to airlines that would otherwise post losses on routes to smaller towns) was aimed at saving taxpayer funds from propping up airline services that are not commercially viable on their own. But the irony is that the subsidies under discussion amounted to about $16 million, while the suspension of FAA funding also meant the expiration of airline ticket taxes for the past two weeks – costing the government almost $300 million in lost revenues. The partial shutdown of the agency never affected air traffic control, and the FAA said it didn’t pose any threats to passenger safety.

The federal debt ceiling isn’t the only thing that the dysfunctional U.S. Congress can’t seem to deal with. Congress also threw a monkey wrench into the U.S. air travel system last week when it failed to pass legislation providing continuing budget authority for the Federal Aviation Administration. As a result, the collection of some federal travel taxes was discontinued, and the FAA stopped work on a number of airport improvement projects around the country. It also laid off about 4,000 non-essential personnel, although air traffic controllers kept working. “It is important to note that the safety of the flying public will not be compromised” by the current lack of funding, the FAA said. Taxes that expired on July 22 without being renewed included the 7.5 percent ticket tax, $3.70 segment tax, and international arrival and departure taxes of $16.30. Although the government stopped collecting that money, however, most airlines didn’t — they simply raised their base fares by the same amount of the discontinued taxes and have simply been pocketing the revenue instead of sending it to the government. A few carriers, including Virgin America, Alaska and Frontier, did not raise fares.

“This is no way to run the best aviation system in the world,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The FAA said that because it no longer has the necessary funding, it has issued stop-work orders on dozens of construction projects at airports around the country, including new air traffic control towers at Las Vegas, Nev.; Palm Springs and Oakland, Calif.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; and Gulfport, Miss. Contractors were supposed to start tearing down the old traffic control tower at New York LaGuardia last week, but that work was halted as well, and so were plans to install “runway status lights” — which tell pilots when it is safe to enter or cross over an active runway — at a dozen major airports around the U.S. Why did the necessary legislation fail to win congressional approval? Because Senate Democrats won’t accept House Republicans’ insistence on including a provision that makes it more difficult for workers in transportation industries — including airlines — to form a union; Republicans and Democrats also are at odds over cuts to the Essential Air Services program, which subsidizes airline service to small towns. While members of Congress squabble over these seemingly minor details in the funding legislation, the FAA is losing an estimated $200 million a week in revenues from air travel taxes.

Since Congress failed to approve an extension of the Federal Aviation Administration’s funding, certain air travel taxes expired on July 22 – and the Internal Revenue Service says many travelers are entitled to refunds. Taxes that expired on July 22 without being renewed included the 7.5 percent ticket tax, $3.70 segment tax, and international arrival and departure taxes of $16.30. (Although the government stopped collecting that money, most airlines simply raised their base fares by the same amount of the discontinued taxes and have simply been pocketing the extra funds instead of sending them to the government. A few carriers, including Virgin America, Alaska and Frontier, did not raise fares.) There’s no clear answer as to when the gridlock in Congress will be untangled and the taxes might be reinstated, but according to the IRS, if you bought a ticket on or before July 22 for travel on or after July 23, you might be entitled to a refund.

“Because the airlines and travel service providers already have the information about passenger ticket purchases and travel, and in many cases have payment card information that may facilitate streamlined refunds, the IRS has asked the airlines to provide refunds to eligible passengers when requested,” the agency said. “However, passengers who are unable to obtain a refund from the airline may obtain a refund by submitting a claim to the IRS” – provided they submit proof of taxes paid and travel dates “under procedures that are under development.” The IRS said it will “provide additional guidance at a later date.” What if the passenger’s travel dates for a pre-July 23 ticket purchase come at a time after Congress reinstates the levies? “That depends on how such travel is treated in any legislation reinstating the tax,” IRS said.

A three-judge appeals court in Washington D.C. has rejected a legal challenge against the Transportation Security Administration’s increasing reliance on full-body scanners for airport security screenings. The suit, filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a consumer advocacy group, had charged that by using the high-tech scanners – which can essentially see through an airline passenger’s clothing – TSA was violating individual privacy rights, as well as the constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches. TSA expects to be using about 1,000 of the devices at scores of U.S. airports by the end of this year. The appellate court agreed that the new scanners are more intrusive and invasive of privacy than the metal detectors that preceded them, but it noted that passengers are not required to step into a scanner, since they have the option of taking a personal pat-down by security officers instead. The judges concluded that the TSA security measures were not unreasonable, and that their effectiveness in detecting non-metallic as well as metallic threats took precedence over their affront to individual privacy. However, the court also said that TSA had failed to invite public comment about the full-body scanners before it decided to deploy them nationwide, and said the agency should do that now – although the court said it would allow TSA to keep using them.

Faced with opposition from airlines over many of its newest consumer protection regulations, the Transportation Department has pushed back the effective date for some of them, to give carriers and other affected parties more time to adjust their internal systems and procedures. Some of the rules will still go into effect on August 23, as originally scheduled, including one that increases compensation for passengers who are bumped off flights against their will when they have a confirmed reservation, and another that sets a tarmac delay limit of four hours for international departures, including those of foreign carriers. After sitting on the ground for four hours, passengers would have to be given an opportunity to disembark – just like the three-hour limit in effect for domestic flights. But the agency delayed implementation of new air fare advertising requirements from October 24 to January 24; those rules require airlines to include government-mandated fees and taxes in all advertised air fares. Also delayed to January 24 were regulations that require baggage fees to be displayed on e-ticket confirmations, and a rule that gives passengers a 24 hour window in which they can cancel a reservation without a penalty. Another rule delayed until January requires that on code-share flights, the baggage allowances and fees of the ticketing carrier will apply across the full itinerary.

After two years of wrangling with the Transportation Department, it looks like Delta and US Airways will finally be able to move ahead with a substantial exchange of takeoff and landing rights at two of the nation’s most congested airports: New York LaGuardia and Washington Reagan National. DOT said it has given tentative approval to a deal in which Delta would obtain 132 slot pairs (i.e., rights to one takeoff and one landing) at LGA from US Airways, while US Airways would get 42 Delta slot pairs at DCA. As part of the agreement, US Airways would also obtain the rights to operate additional daily service to Sao Paulo, Brazil starting in 2015, and Delta would pay US Airways $66.5 million. The two airlines had originally hoped to exchange even more slots at the two airports, but DOT said that in order to preserve competition, it would only approve the deal if they agreed to sell a certain number of slot pairs to other airlines that have “little or no service” at the two facilities. After considerable negotiation with the government and a short-lived legal action challenging DOT’s initial decision, the airlines agreed that they would sell off eight slot pairs at DCA and 16 at LaGuardia to other carriers.

In tentatively approving the revised agreement, DOT noted that since the airlines filed their original proposal, “recent events had resulted in an increased presence of low-cost carriers at the two airports, but that divesting slots to new entrants or low-cost carriers would still be necessary to reduce the prospects for competitive harm.” The agency conceded that the slot swap could lead to “enhanced service benefits to passengers and a more efficient use of slots at the airports” as Delta and US Airways overhaul their schedules to make use of their new operating rights. But DOT also will require the two carriers to wait 90 days after final approval before they start to phase in the changes, “in order to allow the new services to establish a foothold at the airports.” The agency is asking for public comment on the exchange before it issues a final order.

Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole said that the agency will gradually roll out new software that changes the images displayed on the agency’s full-body scanners at airport checkpoints, eliminating the machines’ graphic depictions of bodily details underneath the passenger’s clothing. TSA currently has 500 “Advanced Imaging Technology” devices in use at 78 U.S. airports, with hundreds more scheduled to be deployed as they gradually replace metal detectors. Civil liberties groups have complained about the detailed body images that the machines provide to TSA agents as they look for possible weapons or other dangerous devices, metallic and non-metallic, hidden beneath the person’s clothes.

TSA uses two types of imaging technology in the body scanners – “millimeter wave” and “backscatter” imaging. TSA said that after successful field testing at the Atlanta, Las Vegas and Washington Reagan National airports, it will install new software in the millimeter wave devices that will “enhance privacy by eliminating passenger-specific images.” Instead, the software will replace the actual image of the passenger’s body with “a generic outline of a person” that will still display any threatening items under the clothing, the agency said. The enhanced software means that the scanner images will no longer have to be viewed by a security officer at a remote location, but instead can be shown on a monitor attached to the machine. “In the coming months, TSA will install the software upgrade on all currently deployed millimeter wave imaging technology units at U.S. airports nationwide,” TSA said. Testing of similar software for the backscatter scanners will begin in the fall, the agency added.

Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole met with airline and airport officials last week to fill them in on TSA’s plan to start testing risk-based airport security screening sometime this fall. The proposed new model would provide an expedited screening process for frequent travelers who provide background information about themselves and are deemed to present little or no threat to security. Pistole said that during its first phase, the pilot test will focus on select members of airline frequent flyer programs and/or individuals who participate in existing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) trusted traveler programs including Global Entry, SENTRI and NEXUS. Only U.S. citizens will be eligible, and participation in the pilot program will be voluntary. The initial testing will be at Atlanta Hartsfield and Detroit Metro airports, with members of Delta SkyMiles and participants in the CBP programs who are flying on Delta; and at Miami International and Dallas/Ft. Worth for American AAdvantage members and CBP participants flying on American. “TSA plans to expand this pilot to include United Airlines, Southwest, JetBlue, US Airways, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, as well as additional airports, once operationally ready,” TSA said. The agency did not say how existing security inspections might be modified to make them “expedited,” and stressed that pilot program participants might still be subject to random screening in addition to the regular checkpoint inspection. TSA said it will work with CBP and the airlines “to determine passenger eligibility for this screening pilot.”

The Air Transport Association (ATA), representing major U.S. airlines, is the latest group to throw its support behind a risk-based airport security screening regimen that would create a new class of “trusted travelers.” Meanwhile, a key congressman also has backed the idea. Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole has said that his agency is planning to start testing a risk-based system later this year – a concept that already has the backing of the International Air Transport Association and the U.S. Travel Association, a national trade organization for travel-related businesses. In testimony before a House Homeland Security subcommittee last week, ATA CEO Nicholas Calio said U.S. airlines are committed to working with TSA to implement such a system, which would create an expedited screening process for passengers who agree to provide relevant background information about themselves.

ATA had never warmed up to the previous, private-sector-based trusted traveler programs, which simply gave participants faster access to screening checkpoints, where they still had to go through the same levels of scrutiny as all other travelers. Calio told the congressional panel that a true risk-based system should allow TSA “to create an alternative type of screening for these passengers, which ultimately will reduce the screening lines for everyone. This program should not simply allow certain passengers to go to the front of the line as previous programs have. Rather, TSA should use current databases of information such as Advanced Passenger Information Systems, Global Entry and Secure Flight, as well as other factors, to actually create a different, expedited screening regime for these travelers… Screening everyone equally squanders limited resources and detracts from focusing on travelers who may present real risks.” An expedited screening for approved travelers would presumably eliminate some of the current annoying requirements, like removing shoes and taking laptops out of carry-ons.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R.-Ala.), the chairman of that subcommittee, told Bloomberg News that he too favors a risk-based airport security process – one that focuses “on people who are a threat, and not treating everybody like they’re a potential terrorist.” Rogers also told Bloomberg that is working on a bill that would provide TSA with more explosive-sniffing dogs that could be used at security checkpoints to reduce the need for intrusive personal pat-downs.