TSA opening 3 NYC-area enrollment offices to speed check-ins

Federal security officials said Tuesday they are opening three temporary offices in the New York City area to help enroll travelers in a program meant to speed them through airport security checkpoints.

One office in the United Airlines ticket office in Penn Station will be open from July 11 to July 29, the Transportation Security Administration said in a news release.

The TSA said it would also open temporary offices from July 12 to July 16 at the Hilton Hotel at Kennedy Airport and at the Newark Liberty International Airport Marriott.

People can apply at those locations to enroll in the TSA’s PreCheck program, which costs $85 and is good for five years. Applicants will also have to be fingerprinted.

However, as long lines at security checkpoints earlier this year drove more passengers to enroll in PreCheck, wait time for approval has increased to several weeks, even months.

The Global Gateway Alliance, which advocates for better New York area airports, said it welcomed the “temporary fixes.”

“It’s just common sense to put enrollment centers in places that meet passengers where they are, rather than in far-off and hard-to-find locations, and now [the] TSA needs to make this move permanent,” the group’s chairman, Joseph Sitt, said.

The TSA has eight permanent enrollment centers in the region, including the one in the Quality Plaza Shopping Center at 958 S. Broadway in Hicksville.