Looming Real ID deadline concerns Hollywood Burbank Airport officials
With less than a year before travelers using drivers licenses as identification are required to have Real ID cards to travel domestically, Hollywood Burbank Airport officials talked Tuesday about ways to avoid the chaos that is expected when that day comes.
The discussion was held during a meeting of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority at the airfield.
Starting Oct. 1, people who plan to fly within the United States will be required to have a Real ID, a driver’s license that complies with federal law, or other federally accepted means of identification.
Frank Miller, executive director of Hollywood Burbank, said Congress enacted the Real ID Act of 2005 to have a more secure identification system nationwide after the events of 9/11.
Miller said the hijackers used fraudulent driver’s licenses and state identification cards to board the airplanes used in the tragic events.
As a result, the federal government gave each state until 2017 to ensure that the driver’s licenses that were issued complied with federal law. However, many states, including California, asked for extensions to develop an application process that was compliant.
The Trump administration is no longer extending the deadline, which means those who plan to fly domestically will need to have a Real ID driver’s license, a passport or a military ID by Oct. 1.
“Some people have thought that they’ll be able to get more enhanced screening,” Miller said. “In the past, if someone had lost their driver’s license and, for some reason, they show up at the security checkpoint [without it], the [Transportation Security Administration] had the ability to do a more enhanced, very intrusive, type of screening to get those people on the aircraft. This will not be allowed [anymore].”
Miller said airports such as Hollywood Burbank are concerned about what will happen when a passenger who doesn’t have a Real ID arrives at the airport and cannot board their flight because they don’t have the proper credentials.
Commissioner Ross Selvidge said he recently attended an airport conference where the topic was discussed, and he thinks more airports should be concerned about the public attaining their Real ID.
“I wasn’t sure people were as nervous as they ought to be,” Selvidge said. “There didn’t seem to be a particular idea of how this could be resolved.”
Miller said Hollywood Burbank and other airports in the state have reached out to state officials numerous times to consider allowing travelers to apply for their Real ID at an airport to encourage people to get their new credentials.
