Press Release

 

JULY 30, 2007

CLEAR® TO GIVE ALL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES DISCOUNT ON AIRPORT SECURITY FAST PASS CARD. 

 

NEW YORK, Clear, the leading service provider of registered traveler (RT) lanes at U.S. airports, announced today that all government employees will receive a discount on Clear memberships. This discount will be available to all first responders, emergency workers, legislators and their staffs, and law enforcement officers, among others, at the local, state and federal levels. And, so that the federal government’s frequent fliers will have easy access to enrollment centers, Clear has made agreements with the Congressional Federal Credit Union and the Pentagon Federal Credit Union to host enrollment centers at the Longworth House Office Building and on the concourse level of the Pentagon. Those locations will open by September, if not earlier. (The Reagan and Dulles Airports are currently preparing to launch Registered Traveler.)

 

Every government employee nationwide will receive 13 months of membership in Clear for the price of a year’s subscription by enrolling at flyclear.com/government. Applicants wishing to receive the discount must start their enrollment from this site. The program will be widely marketed in all state capitals and among government officials responsible for government agency travel arrangements. Since last year, Clear has been providing free Clear cards to active duty military who choose to enroll in the program, an offer that will continue.

 

With over 53,000 members, Clear’s growing national network of fast lanes is now in place at Orlando, JFK, San José, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis International Airports, as well as at Newark Liberty International Airport’s Terminal B. Clear will launch lanes at Albany International, Little Rock National, and Westchester (NY) County Airports next month – and at LaGuardia in September. And, Clear has been selected by the San Francisco Airport Commission after a public competitive bid. Subject to final Board of Supervisors approval of its contract, Clear will launch at SFO in September. 

 

“Clear is designed to allow the nation’s road warriors to spend an extra half hour or more at home in the morning and then go to the airport and get on a line where the wait time is short and predictable,” said Clear founder and CEO Steven Brill. “We think the price -- $99.95 a year – is fair, and so do our customers, but we decided,” Brill explained, “that it made sense to extend ourselves a little more to public servants who travel. And with programs about to launch at Reagan and Dulles, this is the right time to extend that offer.”

 

Brill added that “We are working to persuade the Transportation Security Administration to recognize the security checks that so many government workers – such as Secret Service Agents, first responders, and many Congressional staff – already go through, so that TSA will not have to do that screening all over again. If that happens, we would also drop the $28.00 fee that TSA now charges for this vetting, and perhaps drop the fee even more if we did not have to spend time and money capturing the fingerprints at enrollment from those who have already had their prints taken.”

 

Other airports expected to launch RT programs this fall, in addition to Reagan and Dulles, include Denver and Atlanta.

 

Because of the Transportation Security Administration’s requirement that all RT cards be interoperable, Clear cards will be recognized at all of these airports no matter which service provider wins these bids. Thus, Clear is already marketing and, in some cases, setting up enrollment centers in each of these cities, and using national marketing partnerships with major travel companies and hotel chains, such as Hyatt Hotels and AirTran Airways, to supplement these efforts. 

 

Clear's new verification kiosk, with state-of-the-art shoe scanner technology, has been installed at all Clear lanes. The TSA-approved kiosk is in use today in Orlando - where members can, in most instances, leave their shoes on as they pass through the security checkpoint. The shoe scanning technology will become operational at all other terminals as soon as TSA-approved protocols are in place. Another technology is expected to exempt Clear members from removing their suit coats and other outer garments in the coming months.

 

Applicants must start the membership enrollment process at flyclear.com/government and complete it in person at a Clear enrollment center, where they have their identity documents verified and their biometrics (fingerprint and iris images) captured. Clear enrollment centers are located in airports with Clear programs and also at convenient city locations, such as the San Francisco Hyatt (Embarcadero), New York’s Grand Central Hyatt, and the San José Marriott.

 

Verified Identity Pass's Clear program is the largest registered traveler program operating at U.S. airports. Clear has been operational since July 19, 2005, at Orlando International Airport and has over 53,000 members. Earlier this year, Clear launched lanes at JFK, San José, Indianapolis and Cincinnati International Airports, and most recently at Newark’s Terminal B. Clear will launch lanes at Albany International, Little Rock National and Westchester (NY) County Airports in August and at LaGuardia in September. And, the company has been selected by San Francisco International for a program there. Clear also has an agreement with Toronto Pearson International Airport to operate a Canadian program, working with Canadian authorities. Clear's verification kiosk with shoe scanning technology, co-developed with Verified Identity Pass's partner GE, will allow members, in most instances, to keep their shoes on as they pass through the Clear lanes at the security checkpoint. For more information, please visit: flyclear.com.