No More CLEAR at CA Airports?

Image c/o KRON4

By Madison Sciba
Editor-in-Chief

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A bill currently making its way through the California legislature has its sights set on ending third-party identification companies at TSA in California airports. These third-party identification companies, such as CLEAR, allow people to skip the line at security, and even jump ahead of those who already have TSA precheck. Anyone can get this “skip the line” pass. Well, anyone who is willing to pay $189 a year for the service. 

Anyone who has flown out of Oakland airport knows that the TSA line can be atrociously long, and watching the CLEAR people cut the line can be infuriating. California lawmakers are proposing that companies like CLEAR should set up their own form of security, in addition to TSA, because it is unfair that those who cannot pay are being forced to wait while those who do pay are able to jump the line. 

Travelers at SJC worry that this will cause airfare to go up, and wait times at security will increase. Although passengers familiar with SJC know that the quickest way to get through security is to go through regular TSA as PreCheck and CLEAR usually have longer lines.

Airlines are also concerned about the bill, as they are worried that it will cause more delays and missed flights because passengers with services like CLEAR use it to expedite the TSA security process. However, it should be noted that major US airlines, such as United, Delta, and Alaska, have already partnered with CLEAR