Thousands of eyes and ears were on TSA when business travelers from around the globe converged on “The Peach State” for the premier business travel industry event of the year.
Nearly a dozen TSA leaders participated in the 55th annual Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Convention at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. TSA updated the business travel industry world on the agency’s focus on transforming the customer experience for passengers who engage with TSA prior to travel, during screening at TSA checkpoints across the country and post-travel.
Over 5,000 business travelers from 50 countries and 600 companies registered for the GBTA Convention. TSA led two sessions on the airport experience and met one-on-one with many industry partners.
Our teams shared the latest on technology upgrades, innovation initiatives and numerous programs including TSA PreCheck®, TSA social media, AskTSA, the agency’s Speakers Bureau, REAL ID and TSA Cares, the agency’s passenger support service for travelers with disabilities, medical conditions and needing additional assistance.
TSA’s customer service scores are excellent, and the convention gave the agency a great opportunity to share that significant news.
“In the passenger experience survey in May 2023, we had a 93% customer satisfaction score with 95% professionalism and respect for our screening officers,” said Niki French, TSA Customer Experience Branch manager. “The one stat I’m the proudest of is our confidence score. 94% of those surveyed were confident in TSA officers’ ability to keep your travel safe.”
French told convention goers she and her team keep the pulse of the passenger in mind and try to “make things better for everybody.”
Efficiency through technology
A key component of the passenger experience is enhanced technology and efficiency at the nation’s TSA checkpoints.
“We have deployed about 1,350 Credential Authentication Technology-2 machines across the enterprise and should have over 2,000 by early next year,” said Jason Lim from TSA’s Requirements and Capabilities Analysis (RCA) when offering an update on facial recognition technology to attendees at the session on “Transforming the Customer Experience at TSA.”
With the record passenger volume this summer, including the first-ever 3 million travelers screened in a single day on Sunday, July 7, Lim believes it’s critical for TSA to have the best identity verification technology available.
“Basically, we have to verify the identities of 3 million-plus people every day,” he said. “That’s a lot. We probably have the largest use case for in-person identity verification in the world.”
TSA PreCheck
Last month, the TSA PreCheck program hit the 20 million active member milestone, less than 11 years after the agency launched the application program.
TSA PreCheck enables low-risk travelers to enjoy a secure and efficient screening experience at more than 200 airports without compromising security standards. TSA’s wait time benchmarks for TSA PreCheck lanes are under 10 minutes compared to under 30 minutes for standard lanes.
“My shameless plug to get TSA PreCheck is there’s less friction,” RCA Capability Management and Innovation Executive Director Melissa Conley told attendees at a separate airport experience session. “You get to keep your shoes on. Light outerwear stays on, so we have all these programs in place to help people out.”
Speeding up bag screening
To move passenger bags quicker through the screening process while maintaining top notch security, Conley said TSA is working with third party providers and equipment manufacturers to develop algorithms to detect guns, knives and sharp objects.
“We don’t have to look at every single bag anymore,” she said. “That’s going to speed up the passenger journey through the checkpoint. It takes all partners working together to deploy this type of technology, so it’s a wonderful partnership.”
Social media
Travelers today are better prepared to go through our nation’s TSA checkpoints thanks in large part to the agency’s push to communicate with the public through social media.
Anyone with a travel question can reach out to our AskTSA team and get a quick response.
Since its launch in 2015, AskTSA has received and responded to more than 10 million questions from the traveling public through X (formerly Twitter), Facebook Messenger, Apple Business Chat and SMS/texting accounts.
AskTSA answers more than 3 million inquiries from travelers every year with an average response time of under five minutes.
“The AskTSA team, by engaging travelers in real-time texting, enables that better travel experience at the checkpoint, because passengers are better prepared,” said Ian Cava, AskTSA program manager. 
The TSA social media team also directly connects with the traveling public on Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Threads.
“Whether it’s X, Facebook Messenger, text or Apple Business Chat, we really are trying to meet travelers in the area they feel comfortable in communicating with us,” Cava noted.
Conley encouraged everyone to follow TSA’s social media accounts.
“It’s top notch and super fun,” Conley said.
Jerry Koehler, TSA’s Marketing and Branding Division director, said being part of a high-profile global event like the GBTA Convention is a great way to further enhance TSA’s partnerships with the business travel industry.
Koehler emphasized, “One of our overarching goals in attending is our partnership with the travel industry, with airlines, travel management firms, hotels, rental car companies and travel technology providers, many of whom were represented here.”
By Don Wagner, TSA Strategic Communications & Public Affairs