Firm to enhance DIA security process; Registered Traveler program aimed at boosting efficiency

Oct. 30, 2007

Denver International Airport has selected Verified Identity Pass to oversee its Registered Traveler program as part of a larger contract to boost efficiency at its security checkpoints.

The program, already in operation elsewhere, allows RT members to use separate security lines in exchange for an annual fee of about $100.

Travelers initially have to submit biometric information such as fingerprints and iris scans. The government vets all applications.

Members can use designated Registered Traveler lines at DIA and other participating airports, allowing them to bypass general security lanes. RT participants still have to go through standard security checks.

"Denver is in its own right one of the two or three most important airports in the United States," said Steven Brill, CEO of Verified Identity Pass, which operates the Clear Registered Traveler program. "But it's also a key part of a national network that adds tremendous value to us.

"Denver has made the program much more valuable everywhere else, because a lot of business travelers connect through there."

Verified Identity Pass runs RT programs at about a dozen airports. Its cards also can be used at airports that use different firms to operate their RT programs, and vice versa.

The company expects to have its first Denver enrollment station up and running at one or both Hyatt hotels downtown by early December. It will then add similar areas at DIA, with the goal of actually starting the program by mid-January.

Verified Identity Pass plans to hire 45 to 55 employees initially, and expects to sign up tens of thousands of members in Denver next year.

"I would be shocked if we didn't get 50,000 in the first year," said Brill, adding that it will cost a couple million dollars to start the program here. "We already have several hundred members in Denver signed up."

Travelers can complete the first step of the process - an online application - at flyclear.com.

The company will operate the program under a larger contract awarded to Hospital Shared Services to enhance DIA's security checkpoints.

HSS, which beat out International RAM for the contract, will manage the general security queues and help passengers through the process. It also will hire workers for the RT program.

Transportation Security Administration officers will still handle the standard security checks.

The contract is part of DIA's effort to make the security process more efficient.

It will provide "benefits to all people at the checkpoints, not just those who enroll in Registered Traveler," Patrick Heck, DIA's deputy manager of aviation/revenue and business development, said in a news release.

INFOBOX

Verified Identity's Clear RT cards are currently accepted at:

* Albany, N.Y.

* Cincinnati

* Indianapolis

* Jacksonville, Fla.

* New York JFK

* Newark, N.J.

* Orlando, Fla.

* Reno, Nev.

* San Francisco

* San Jose, Calif.

* Westchester County, N.Y.

Clear lanes will open soon at:

* New York LaGuardia

* Denver