TSA lets some unticketed visitors return to airport gates

The Transportation Security Administration is reopening airport gate areas to some people without plane tickets, allowing eligible TSA PreCheck members to pass through security for send-offs, reunions, layover visits, dining and shopping at select U.S. airports.

The new program, called Gateside by TSA PreCheck, restores a part of air travel that largely ended after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when security checkpoints became the stopping point for most friends and relatives accompanying passengers.

“As an exclusive benefit for our most trusted travelers, this new program makes it easier to return to the gate for welcomes and send-offs, meet friends during a layover, and enjoy dining and shopping along the way, bringing back the moments that once defined air travel,” TSA said on its website.

The program is free, but access is not automatic. Interested TSA PreCheck members must apply online one to three days before the planned airport visit and receive approval before arriving. Approved visitors can then use a TSA PreCheck lane with an acceptable form of identification. The pass is valid for one calendar day, and visitors may leave and re-enter the secure area during that same day.

TSA says members of other trusted-traveler programs who have a Known Traveler Number also may apply for gate access.

The program is starting at 13 airports. TSA identified several of them, including Los Angeles International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City International Airport. The agency says it plans to expand Gateside by TSA PreCheck to more airports in the coming months.

For decades before 9/11, people without tickets could generally walk with departing passengers to their gates. The attacks led to broad changes in airport security, including tighter limits on who could enter secure areas beyond checkpoints.

Some airports have already experimented with similar access programs. Pittsburgh International Airport launched myPITpass in 2017, CBS News reported, though that program was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained on hold during airport construction. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport began a similar program a year later, allowing gate access for up to 300 unticketed visitors per day. Philadelphia International Airport and Kansas City International Airport also have their own versions of gate access programs.

The TSA program marks a national expansion of that idea for travelers enrolled in trusted-traveler screening. It does not eliminate screening: approved visitors must still pass through security before entering the gates, and the agency requires advance approval for each visit.