JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — When traveling, it is safe to say that no one looks forward to the airport….but for families with young children, like Stacy Heider and her 6-year-old daughter, there are some additional challenges.
“I always feel rushed cause you know everyone else is kind of like has their little carry on and they’re ready to go, and I’m like hold on, you know, we have a lot of luggage,” said Stacy Heider.
But now, if you’re traveling through Jacksonville International Airport with your family, your travel experience just became a little bit easier.
TSA and the Department of Homeland Security have launched a new campaign dedicating a security lane specifically for families traveling with young children.
"What we’re trying to do is minimize stress for those families as they go through security screening," said Daniel Velez, TSA Spokesperson for Florida.
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Jacksonville International Airport is one of the first airports in the country to have this.
Velez tells Action News Jax the ‘Families on the Fly’ campaign just launched a few weeks ago. Right now, TSA says the family lane in JIA is only open during peak travel hours, but that’s expected to change soon with school ramping up.
If you’re traveling with someone who is 12 years old or younger at JIA, an airport ambassador will come up to you and direct you to the family lane. Once you get there, there will be a person dedicated to helping you unload your items to get through security.
“Sometimes families are in the lane and they’re trying to hurry as fast as they can because they know they’re holding up the line because they have so much to do, and it can be stressful for them,” Velez said. “So now they have a dedicated line where you have Transportation Security Officers helping them out.”
For Stacy, she thinks the family lanes are going to make her family’s travel experience smoother.
“It’s hard enough to like, you know, when we have little ones sometimes, they don’t know where they are going, sometimes they are just nervous,” said Heider. “To have anyone help is always very useful.”
In the future, the Department of Homeland Security says they will have other aspects of this campaign available for families including:
- Discounted TSA PreCheck® fees for families
- Dedicated TSA PreCheck lanes for service members and their families
Now that school is ramping back up, TSA says that as long as all 9 security lanes in JIA are operational, the family lane will be open throughout the entire day.
For more information on the Families on the Fly campaign, click here.
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