There is strong support among both air and business travelers for TSA’s use of biometrics at airport checkpoints, with privacy concerns ranking low on their list of priorities when flying.
The U.S. Travel Association along with Ipsos released survey results underscoring traveler preference of biometric technology screening to keep air passengers safe and provide greater efficiency at airport checkpoints.
Less than 5% of business and air travelers are concerned about privacy issues when traveling. Both business travelers and all air travelers share getting to their final destination on time as their top concern when traveling (33% and 27%, respectively). Those enrolled in TSA PreCheck are significantly more concerned about on-time arrivals (42%).
“By overwhelming margins, air travelers support TSA’s use of biometric technology at airports to strengthen security and improve the travel experience,” said Geoff Freeman, U.S. Travel Association President and CEO, in a press release statement.
Key findings include:
• The majority of air travelers (79%) support the use of biometrics at TSA security checkpoints to confirm the identity of travelers.
• Nearly all Americans (92%) and air travelers (95%) agree that verifying traveler identity is an important measure taken by TSA to protect the flying public.
• Nine in 10 air travelers say they would be more likely or equally likely to support biometric use at TSA security checkpoints if it reduced the typical time it takes to get through security.
• Supporters of TSA biometrics primarily list stopping terrorism and human trafficking (71%) and making airports safer (66%) as their reasons for supporting biometric use at TSA security checkpoints—even above travel efficiency and wait times.
• More than half of Americans say they are more likely to support the use of biometrics at TSA security checkpoints knowing the data would be: Deleted within hours of the completed trip; used to stop terrorism; have safeguards in place to ensure biometric data is not shared with other government agencies.
Travelers are Satisfied with the Overall TSA Experience
The majority of air flyers are satisfied with their overall TSA experience, but recognize that there is room for improvement in the security process, both in terms of efficiency and the methods used.
Approximately two-thirds of all Americans (62%) and air travelers (66%) are currently aware of TSA using biometric information for security purposes at airport checkpoints. A similar share of each group are aware that their phone or computer uses biometrics for security purposes (57% and 60%, respectively).
About three-quarters of all air travelers (72%) and business travelers (71%) were satisfied with the length of time getting through TSA security screening during their most recent travel experience. On the other hand, most of these passengers were somewhat satisfied rather than very satisfied, and about six-in-10 of air travelers (59%) and over half of business travelers (53%) agree that getting through airport security is too much of a hassle.
When informed that TSA would use certain pieces of personal data to help move passengers through the security checkpoint more quickly, three-quarters of Americans say they are willing to provide their driver’s license photo (75%), their birthdate (73%), and their passport photo (73%). Less than half share they would be willing to share their fingerprint (46%).
