Practically 20 years after airline passengers had 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 after they undergo the overall safety line at many main airports throughout the nation, two sources instructed ABC Information.
An sudden 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 through Getty Photos
The aim is to roll the brand new coverage out to all U.S. airports shortly, in keeping with the memo. Beforehand, solely passengers within the TSA PreCheck line had been in a position to hold their footwear on usually.
The transportation company has spent years on the lookout for an modern approach to permit passengers to maneuver sooner by the safety checkpoints.
Passengers who set off the alarm on the scanners or magnetometers, nevertheless, can be required to take their footwear off for extra screening, in keeping 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.
