After nearly two decades, passengers going through airport security in the United States will no longer have to take their shoes off.
The Transportation Security Administration will be eliminating the security requirement “effective immediately,” Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, announced Tuesday.
”TSA will no longer require travelers to remove their shoes when they go through our security checkpoints,” she said. “We want to improve this travel experience, but while maintaining safety standards and making sure that we are keeping people safe.”
The news was first reported by the blog Gate Access.
“The key to our approach is layered security,” Noem said. “Passengers will still pass through multiple layers of screening. They’ll also go through identity verification.”
The rule was being evaluated under the Biden administration, however she credited President Trump with taking the initiative to eliminate it.
Changes to other TSA rules are also being considered, if they can be implemented safely, Noem said.
In December 2001, Richard Reid, who became known as the “shoe bomber,” tried to use matches to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami.
The requirement for passengers to take their shoes off at TSA security checkpoints came nearly five years later due to “intelligence pointing to a continuing threat,” an official TSA history notes, following a foiled August 2006 terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives onboard transatlantic flights. The TSA introduced its 3-1-1 liquids rule for carry-on luggage in response.
“In those 20 years since that policy was put in place, our security technology has changed dramatically. It’s evolved. TSA has changed,” Noem said, noting the addition of new scanners and more officers in some areas.
“The REAL ID compliance allows us another layer of security knowing who’s going through our checkpoints and who isn’t,” Noem said.
Participants in the Trusted Traveler Program TSA PreCheck have long been able to avoid removing shoes. However, they must submit to a background check and pay an application fee. Noem said she still expects travelers will see value in this program, even if it is not the only way to avoid taking shoes off.
CNN’s Kara Devlin contributed to this report.
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