T.F. Green prepares for busy summer travel season with new technology

WARWICK, R.I. (WLNE) — Summer vacation is around the corner and that means summer travel is about to pick back up again at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport.

“Right now, we’re averaging about 6,700 people a day that we’re screening on our busiest days. And we’ve already hit 7,000 once,” said Dan Velez, a TSA spokesman for the New England region.

That 7,000 screening per day number is one Velez expects to surpass several times throughout the summer with all signs pointing to a busier summer travel season than years past.

New this summer, passengers will notice something different when they’re going through TSA checkpoints, as seven new Computed Tomography scanners have been installed in the airport that gives TSA officials a 3D look at carry-on baggage to boost security and simplify bag searches.

“When you come up, everything should be in your carry-on bag you put it in a bin and you’re off,” Velez said. “TSA agents are able to manipulate the image by rotating it 360 degrees. And the best thing for passengers is you can now leave your laptop and 3-1-1 liquid bags in your carry-on bag,” Velez said.

Passengers flying out of T.F. Green Thursday morning were happy to hear about the changes coming to security.

“New technology gives us new security ,so I’m really excited about us using new ways of checking our baggage,” said Jeffrey Craig Amado, who was flying to Atlanta Thursday morning.

By adding this improved technology, TSA officials said they anticipate security lines to be cut down significantly but added lines may get worse before they get better because most people still don’t know about these new CT scanners and are still getting acclimated to not having to remove anything from their bags.

“It is very interesting seeing that it can go faster and you can make it go faster than it already is so it’s nice seeing the efficiency being improved,” said Samantha Maxwell, who was flying to California.

Another new addition to T.F. Green this summer is passengers with TSA pre-check can now bring their children that are 17 years or younger through the faster security line with them. Previously, children had to be 12 years or younger to do so.