The holiday travel season is getting underway with some new technology in use at Iowa’s two largest airports.
TSA regional spokesperson, Jessica Mayle says one thing that hasn’t changed is the advice that you get to the airport early. “Still recommend two hours even at an airport of a smaller size, that buffer really helps a lot because you just don’t know when those sort of peak times are going to hit. If you’re in the middle of it, you want to make sure you’re giving yourself plenty of time,” she says.
New computer CT bag scanners at the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids airports make it easier to go through security. “I think people are used to when they approach the scanner, taking things out, take my liquids out, taking the electronics out, this machine really sees inside the bag better. So it’s fewer bag checks for the passenger,” Mayle says. “Because of that they can leave things in. So don’t have to divest or have to take as much out of your bag when you approach.”
She says the process for sending items through the new machines is different as well. “Every single thing goes into a bin with these machines. So that’s even your suitcase, every single thing goes into a bag,” Mayle says. “So, if you missed that baggage check cut off and you try and bring an oversized bag to the checkpoint. It’s not even going to fit through our machine, we’re going to send you back down anyway. So make sure you’re not bringing oversized bags through.”
The two airports are also using facial recognition technology to check ID’s. Mayle says Iowa’s new mobile ID’s are accepted. “If you do have a mobile ID, you can present it at the checkpoint and we do have readers that can read those mobile I-Ds on your phone. And then you know, the other piece of that is that the reader also has a camera attached. So it will take a picture of you live it compares it to the picture on your ID, whether you’re using a mobile ID or a physical one,” she says.
Mayle says the technology across the country can vary, so you should be prepared to follow whatever instructions you are given by TSA once you get to the airport. The TSA has a list of prohibited items on their website you can check before heading out. Mayle says many people still forget about the limits on liquids. “Big bottles of water, big bottles of shampoo. A lot of people again, are just kind of careless and don’t think about it,” she says. “And it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Like, oh, that’s fine. I’ll go dump it out. But if every single person did that, it really backs the line up, it really slows things down.” Mayle says take time before you approach the checkpoint to make sure you don’t have those items and it will keep the lines moving and make everyone happy.
Today and Sunday are expected to be the busiest days for the Thanksgiving air travel period.