Practically 20 years after airline passengers have been first required to take away their sneakers for safety, the coverage is being phased out.
The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is planning to permit passengers to maintain their sneakers on once 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 enable all passengers to maintain their sneakers 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, Could 7, 2025.
Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register through Getty Photos
The purpose is to roll the brand new coverage out to all U.S. airports shortly, in response to the memo. Beforehand, solely passengers within the TSA PreCheck line have been in a position to maintain their sneakers on usually.
The transportation company has spent years in search of an modern strategy to enable passengers to maneuver quicker by way of the safety checkpoints.
Passengers who set off the alarm on the scanners or magnetometers, nevertheless, can be required to take their sneakers off for added screening, in response to the memo.
This can be a main shift since TSA started requiring passengers to take their sneakers 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 sneakers. 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.
