- TSA's new Gateside by TSA PreCheck program launched September 1 at 13 U.S. airports, letting approved non-ticketed visitors clear security and walk straight to the gate.
- Only current TSA PreCheck members or Known Traveler Number holders can request a pass; kids under 18 can tag along with an approved adult at no extra cost.
- Passes must be requested one to three days ahead of the visit and approved before arrival, and each airport caps how many it issues per day.
- It's the broadest rollback yet of a security rule that has restricted terminal access to ticketed passengers since the September 11 attacks.
Something that hasn't been possible at most American airports in a quarter-century is possible again this month: walking a friend to the gate, or waiting there for one to land, without a boarding pass of your own. Gateside by TSA PreCheck opened its doors on September 1 at 13 airports around the country, giving people already vetted for PreCheck a new reason to head to the terminal even when they aren't flying.
Who Qualifies, and How the Application Works
Eligibility runs through PreCheck. Adults requesting a Gateside pass must already hold TSA PreCheck membership or a Known Traveler Number, and there's a narrow submission window to hit: no sooner than three days out from the visit, no later than the day before, filed through TSA's online portal using a login.gov account. Approval has to come through before the visitor shows up at the airport; walking in without it means being turned away at the checkpoint.
A TSA representative, Dan Velez, told Salt Lake's KUTV the agency wanted a mix of hub sizes for the trial run. "We wanted to hit different size airports from big to small," he said. Children under 18 don't need PreCheck of their own, provided they're listed on an approved adult's application, and visitors don't even need a reason tied to a specific traveler — Velez said people can simply come to eat, shop or watch planes taxi by.
The 13 Airports Testing Gateside
The initial rollout spans small regional fields and major hubs alike:
- Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), California
- Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, Nevada
- San Diego International Airport (SAN), California
- Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Texas
- Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Utah
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), Michigan
- Mesa Gateway Airport (AZA), Mesa, Arizona
- John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Ohio
- Indianapolis International Airport (IND), Indiana
- Will Rogers World Airport (OKC), Oklahoma City
- Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT), Kansas
- Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport (LIT), Little Rock, Arkansas
- Eppley Airfield (OMA), Omaha, Nebraska
Reviving an Airport Ritual That Disappeared After 9/11
Before the 2001 attacks, greeting a plane at the gate, or walking someone all the way to boarding, was simply how flying worked. The law that created TSA changed that almost overnight, closing off the area beyond security to anyone without a boarding pass, aside from a short list of exceptions such as an adult walking an unaccompanied child to a flight or helping a passenger with a disability reach a gate. That restriction, as Newsweek noted in its coverage of the policy shift, has held for nearly 25 years — until Gateside.
Not the First Try, and Not Without Pushback
TSA isn't the first to test this idea. Pittsburgh International ran the country's first modern version, "myPITpass," starting in September 2017, and it didn't launch quietly: American Airlines' flight attendants union pushed back hard in public, arguing that opening the checkpoint to shoppers undercut the layered-security model airlines depend on. Detroit followed two years later with its own Destination Pass. "Now we can welcome more community members into our home to create memorable moments," said Wayne County Airport Authority CEO Chad Newton when that program debuted, and the airport authority has repeated a version of that message ever since. Ontario International in California rolled out a similar digital pass, ONT+, in 2022, and John Wayne Airport in Orange County runs its own OC AirPASS. Seattle-Tacoma has offered a comparable visitor pass for years, too.
The difference with Gateside is who runs it: one federal system tied to PreCheck vetting, instead of a dozen different airport-specific sign-ups — which is presumably why TSA is treating this as something to scale nationwide rather than leave as a one-airport experiment.
Screening Stays the Same — Only the Guest List Changes
None of this loosens what happens at the checkpoint itself. Mesa Gateway spokesman Ryan Smith told KTAR News that Gateside visitors face identical rules to ticketed flyers, no exceptions for liquids and none for anything sharper. "Leave your weapons in the car or at home," Smith said. Mesa Gateway's relatively light security lines, he added, made it a comfortable place to stress-test the extra foot traffic before other airports join.
What Comes Next
TSA says it plans to add airports gradually while it studies how the sign-up process and checkpoint volumes hold up at these first 13. Velez indicated eligibility will likely stay tied to PreCheck rather than opening to the general public any time soon. There's a real gate here too: PreCheck membership costs money and requires a five-year commitment, and Gateside doesn't waive that requirement for either the visitor or the traveler they're seeing off — a detail that could shape how many families actually use the option as the pilot grows. For anyone hoping to walk a parent to their gate or greet someone off a red-eye, the process still starts the same way flying does: enroll in PreCheck, then apply for the pass through TSA's site within that one-to-three-day window before the visit.
