Airport Press readers who plan to travel internationally or who have relatives should read and understand this article) The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will soon require all travelers to and from the Americas, the Caribbean, and Bermuda to have a passport or other accepted form of documentation to enter or reenter the United States. The program will be rolled out in phases. The proposed timeline is as follows:
• As of January 23, 2007, ALL persons*, including U.S. citizens, traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda will be required to present a valid passport, Air NEXUS card, or U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document.
• As early as January 1, 2008, ALL persons*, including U.S. citizens, traveling between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda by land or sea (including ferries), may be required to present a valid passport or other documents as determined by the Department of Homeland Security. While recent legislative changes permit a later deadline, the Departments of State and Homeland Security are working to meet all requirements as soon as possible. Ample advance notice will be provided to enable the public to obtain passports or passport cards for land/sea entries.
*Lawful permanent residents (LPRs).

The Transportation Security Administration is testing whether it can ease a post-9/11 policy that bars people from meeting relatives and friends as they come off flights. A test program at Dallas/Fort Worth and Detroit airports could pave the way for other airports to allow non-travelers through checkpoints to meet passengers or shop at stores and restaurants. "There are a lot of airports that would like people without boarding passes to have access to concessions," said Michael Conway, a spokesman for Detroit Metro Airport, which starts its test next week. Dallas' test started last week. The TSA began requiring boarding passes at checkpoints after it took over airport security in 2002 -- largely to reduce the number of people getting screened and ease lines, said Steve Martin of the Airports Council International. Letting non-travelers back in security lines "adds to the congestion and the difficulty of screening," said aviation security consultant Billie Vincent. The TSA says it won't waive boardingpass requirements if it would lengthen lines or weaken security, and notes that the test is small. Only guests at hotels inside the Dallas and Detroit airport terminals can go through security without boarding passes, and they must be checked against terrorist watch lists. "We are interested to evaluate how limited expansion . . . would work," TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.

The Transportation Security Administration announced the graduation of 10 teams from its National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program. The teams will be assigned to airports in Denver; Miami; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and Houston, and to the mass transit system in San Francisco. Three of the teams will return to San Francisco and another three will serve in Fort Lauderdale. Their increased presence will enhance the transportation systems’ abilities to detect potentially explosive substances while providing an important visual deterrent. “As part of the Federal Air Marshal Service, the canine program is important to TSA’s multi-layered approach to transportation security,” said Dave Kontny, director, National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program. “These teams can be anywhere in the airport or mass transit system in a matter of minutes and can examine any number of

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the seizure of approximately 3,540 pounds of marijuana, discovered in a shipment of "black pepper and seasoning" arriving on a cargo flight from Jamaica. A hard-working CBP labrador retriever named Molly alerted to the marijuana as it was being unloaded from the aircraft. The shipment was then examined using CBP's X-ray equipment, which revealed unusual objects commingled with the spice shipments. Bricks of the illegal herb, marijuana, were hidden in the boxes of black pepper and legal herbs. The drugs have a street value of over $4 million.

Becoming more and more vocal as their European union brethren, Canadian airport screeners staged a four day protest at Toronto's Pearson Airport in October meant 250,000 passengers boarded aircraft without being searched properly, CBC said on Thursday. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation quoted an internal transport ministry report as saying the lapse had "severely compromised the traveling public." It said the "security screening process was circumvented... in some cases it was abandoned altogether." The problem arose after screeners working for a private security company began working to rule, hand-searching all carry-on bags and creating long lines. The screeners told the transport ministry that managers cleared the lines by allowing about 250,000 passengers to pass through with minimal or no screening. In a letter to the transport ministry, workers quoted their managers as asking "Why are you searching bags?" They said the managers "wanted us to rush through the screening procedures." The internal report said the managers' action "constituted a gross violation of pertinent legislation," CBC reported.

A test of an X-ray security scanner that can see through clothing and take clear pictures of the human body along with concealed weapons, has been delayed until early this coming year at Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport. The federal Transportation Security Administration initially said one machine would be operating at Sky Harbour's Terminal 4 by Christmas. However, the agency said technical difficulties were creating problems in setting up the equipment so it work properly with the airport's wireless connections. It also decided the holiday season was not a good time to start.