The Transportation Security Administration, which just completed a pilot Registered Traveler Program at five airports, plans to launch the program nationally by June 2006.

“We are committed to the development of a Registered Traveler Program that will enhance aviation security, ease travel for passengers, and permit TSA to better focus security resources based on risk,” said TSA Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley at a November 3 subcommittee hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.

Unlike the recently completed pilot program, the national program will involve public-private partnerships, much like a program in place at Orlando International Airport. There, passengers willing to pay $79.95 (and who pass a government screening) receive a card that allows them to pass through an express security line.

Based on the initial results of the program, Hawley testified, TSA has concluded “the public will accept the involvement of a private company in a Registered Traveler Program that collects and processes biographic and biometric data, and that a fee-based program can attract participants.”

TSA will work with airports, the travel industry, and vendors to have the nationwide program in place by summer 2006.