Practically 20 years after airline passengers have been first required to take away their footwear for safety, the coverage is being phased out.
The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is planning to permit passengers to maintain their footwear on once they undergo the final safety line at many main airports throughout the nation, two sources advised ABC Information.
An surprising memo went out to TSA officers throughout the nation final week stating the brand new coverage will permit all passengers to maintain their footwear on in all screening lanes at many airports throughout the nation, beginning Sunday.
Air vacationers go although TSA safety at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, CA, Might 7, 2025.
Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register by way of Getty Pictures
The aim is to roll the brand new coverage out to all U.S. airports shortly, in line with the memo. Beforehand, solely passengers within the TSA PreCheck line have been in a position to preserve their footwear on normally.
The transportation company has spent years on the lookout for an revolutionary technique to permit passengers to maneuver quicker via the safety checkpoints.
Passengers who set off the alarm on the scanners or magnetometers, nonetheless, can be required to take their footwear off for extra screening, in line with the memo.
This can be a main shift since TSA started requiring passengers to take their footwear off in 2006.
The coverage got here 5 years after Richard Reid tried to explode an American Airways flight from Paris to Miami with explosives packed in his footwear. The explosives did not detonate and Reid was held down by fellow passengers and the flight crew.
ABC Information has reached out to TSA for a remark.
