In Singapore this week, the International Air Transport Association introduced the future of one-stop security shopping: Imagine a short tunnel that you walk through �� without taking off your shoes, your belt, your jacket, or anything out of your carry on bag ��that contains eye scanners, bomb sniffers, liquid detectors.

What prompted an international airline group to initiate this new all-in-one security technology? Money, of course, and the fact that many passengers now say they don’t want to fly just because of the ordeal of airport security, and on trips of under 500 miles they opt to take the train or the bus.

The Checkpoint of the Future

The Checkpoint of the Future” is 20 feet long, and IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani says, “this means passengers should be able to get from the curb to the boarding gate with dignity.”

Based on a risk-assessment biometric chip on the passenger’s passport or other travel document, they will be directed toward one of three lanes: “known traveler,” “normal,” and “enhanced security.” Known travelers will have had thorough government background checks; normal travelers will encompass most people; enhanced security will be for high-risk passengers, those for whom there is little information available, and some randomly assigned travelers.

The IATA estimates we’ll see these new checkpoints within 5 years and says the industry is moving fast towards across-the-board acceptance of the system.

Meanwhile, the TSA has promised it will launch a pilot program to allow low-risk passengers to go through more minimal security checks.

What’s Really Happening in Airports

Any frequent business traveler will tell you that one of the more insidious side effects of airline and airport security is that no two airports are alike when it comes to implementing security. No two countries are alike.

The concept of one-stop airport security, especially when changing flights, airports and countries, is laughable, because it doesn’t exist. The concept that if you’ve been cleared at one airport you’re OK at another is equally laughable.

In the past five weeks I’ve been to London, Nice, Mexico City, Auckland, Cape Town, and Canada.

In Nice, I didn’t have to take my computer out of the briefcase. I didn’t have to take my shoes off in London. I didn’t have to remove my belt in Mexico City. In Cape Town I didn’t have to remove my jacket. In the U.S., of course, I have to take off my shoes, remove my jacket, take off my belt and remove my computer. Last week, I inadvertently left a full plastic ?bottle of water in my briefcase, and no one stopped me. Go figure.

This lack of security standardization is not only a security loophole in and of itself, but it also creates confusion and wastes time because frequent travelers think they know the rules, only to discover either new rules, or, in my recent experience, no rules.

Well, if the private sector has its way, there might just be some standardization on the way that will save time, stress, and might even save money in terms of delays and personnel.

Will Futuristic Security Fly?

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but local politics, foreign sovereignty and industry lobbying might be the inhibitor to seeing anything like this system anytime soon. Each airport is different (and many were designed before 9/11 and never allowed adequate space for security checkpoints).

While the intentions are good, the real issue here isn’t technology, but common sense. And yes, profiling, between high-risk and low-risk passengers �� not by machine, but by human beings. Those human beings must be willing �� ?from country to country �� to share vital passenger information that will help in that profiling. The problem: Few countries are willing to do it.

In the meantime, get ready to take your shoes off, remove your jacket, undo your belt, take your computer out…or NOT.

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