TSA Starts Real ID Awareness Campaign At Hartsfield-Jackson
Travelers at airports must have a Real ID by Oct. 1, 2020, in order to board a plane. Real IDs are driver’s license with enhanced security features.
Drivers who have licenses with a black or red star in the upper right-hand corner are compliant.
But for the hundreds of millions from around the country who come through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport each year, that may not be the case.
With just about a year out, the Transportation Security Administration has started an awareness campaign to make sure there aren’t backups at security lines when the deadline comes.
Mark Howell with the TSA says they’ll be handed a flyer at security.
“So if they come to the checkpoint with the old license, we’re letting them know that they have the old license and they need to take care of it when they get back home,” Howell said.
More than 96 percent of Georgia drivers already a Real ID.
Georgia has been issuing Real IDs since 2012 and the TSA says by the deadline only about 20,000 of the state’s residents are likely be without one. They will need to bring a passport or some other sort of federally issued ID to board a plane.
More than a dozen states originally resisted Real IDs, but Georgia wasn’t among them. Spencer Moore heads the state’s Department of Driver Services
“We see it as an option that allows us to have secure drivers, secure identities and that’s what we wanted to do,” Moore said.