Travelore News: TSA Increasing Fees For Fliers Starting July 21

By Linda Loyd, Inquirer Staff Writer

Travelers may soon pay more for a plane ticket because the Transportation Security Administration is raising the passenger security fee at U.S. airports.

Fliers currently pay $2.50 for each leg of a connecting flight, capped at $5 per one-way trip. Starting July 21, the fee will jump to a flat $5.60 per one-way trip. The $5 cap on one-way travel will disappear.

Congress approved the higher fees as part of the bipartisan budget act approved in December. The money will go to the general fund of the U.S. Treasury to be used to offset TSA costs for providing aviation security and to reduce the federal deficit.

The security fee has been built into airfares since the TSA was created after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Passengers buying plane tickets before July 21 won't have to pay the higher fees, no matter when they fly.

Separately, the TSA announced Sunday that travelers at more than a dozen airports in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East with direct flights to the United States will be asked to power up their electronic devices, including cellphones, during airport screening.

Devices that do not turn on will not be permitted on the aircraft.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told NBC's Meet the Presson July 6: "Our job is to try to anticipate the next attack, not simply react to the last one. We continually evaluate the world situation. And we know that there remains a terrorist threat to the United States. And aviation security is a large part of that."

Johnson added: "We in national security are very concerned about the foreign fighter flow going into Syria in particular from the United States, from European countries, other countries, and we're tracking that population. There are extremists within the borders of Syria. . . . We spend a lot of time talking to our foreign allies."

Based on the new electronics checks, the Department for Transport in the United Kingdom said passengers using British airports had been told that all electronic devices must be charged. The department declined to say which flights in and out of the United Kingdom would be subject to the new security checks, hoping the uncertainty would deter terrorists.

Certain passengers flying within the United States may also be asked to turn on their electronics at U.S. airports, said a person knowledgeable about the TSA plans. "It's only for a select number of people, who are already required, when they travel, to receive more extensive security screening," he said. "The focus is on international cities to the United States."

The move comes in response to intelligence reports that al-Qaeda members in Syria and Yemen may have developed bombs that can be hidden in mobile phones, with a view to bringing down U.S.-bound planes.

"It's important that the TSA stay ahead of terrorists who are planning new attacks," said Paul Hudson, executive director of FlyersRights, a passengers' rights organization.

Still, Hudson said the TSA provided "no real accounting" to justify the higher screening fee. Improved technology and expedited traveler programs, such as TSA precheck, "would presumably require less personnel and equipment," he said. "I think it's probably not justified to double the fee."

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lloyd@phillynews.com

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Some US-bound Air Travelers Must Turn On Phones

Contributed by Will Lester, AP

FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2012, file photo, passengers queue up for a security check at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China. The Transportation Security Administration is requiring passengers at some overseas airports that offer U.S.-bound flights to power on their electronic devices, the agency said Sunday, July 6, 2014. It says devices that won’t power up won’t be allowed on planes, and those travelers may have to undergo additional screening. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

 Passengers at some overseas airports that offer U.S.-bound flights will soon be required to power on their electronic devices in order to board their flights. The measure is intended to enhance aviation security at a time of increased threats.

The Transportation Security Administration says it is adding the requirement that passengers coming to the U.S. from some airports must turn on devices such as cellphones before boarding. It says devices that won't power up won't be allowed on planes and those travelers may have to undergo additional screening.

"As the traveling public knows, all electronic devices are screened by security officers," the TSA said in the Sunday release announcing the new steps.

American intelligence officials have been concerned about new al-Qaida efforts to produce a bomb that would go undetected through airport security. There is no indication that such a bomb has been created or that there's a specific threat to the U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson recently ordered the TSA to call for extra security measures at some international airports with direct flights to the United States. TSA does not conduct screening abroad, but has the ability to set screening criteria and processes for flights flying to the U.S. from abroad, according to a Homeland Security Department official, who was not allowed to discuss the changes publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

During an interview aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," Johnson declined to speculate on whether new security procedures called for overseas will be required at domestic airports in the future.

"We continue to evaluate things," he said. "The screening we have right domestically from one domestic airport to another is pretty robust, as the American traveling public knows. In this instance we felt that it was important to crank it up some at the last point of departure airports and we'll continually evaluate the situation."

TSA will not disclose which airports will be conducting the additional screening. Industry data show that more than 250 foreign airports offer nonstop service to the U.S.

Aviation remains an attractive target to global terrorists, who are consistently looking for ways to circumvent airport security measures, the DHS official said. Some details on specific enhancements and locations are sensitive because U.S. officials do not want to give information "to those who would do us harm," the official said.

American intelligence officials said earlier this week that they have picked up indications that bomb makers from Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula have traveled to Syria to link up with the al-Qaida affiliate there.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula long has been fixated on bringing down airplanes with hidden explosives. It was behind failed and thwarted plots involving suicide bombers with explosives designed to be hidden inside underwear and explosives secreted inside printer cartridges shipped on cargo planes.

Over the past year, Americans and others from the West have traveled to Syria to join the fight against the Syrian government. The fear is that a fighter with a U.S. or other Western passport, who therefore may be subject to less stringent security screening, could carry such a bomb onto an American plane.