Travelers breezing through airport checkpoints in Salt Lake City

Travelers at Salt Lake City International Airport flew through security checkpoints twice as fast during Memorial Day weekend, when compared to last year — thanks largely to a new program that offers separate lines for expert travelers and beginners.

"That started out as a pilot program here at Salt Lake. It turned out to be so successful that more than 20 other airports are now using it, with more rolling it out every week," said Dwayne Baird, public affairs manager for the Transportation Security Administration's northwest region.

The Deseret News used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain TSA data about how the new system — which began here in February — performed during the Memorial Day weekend, one of the first big travel weekends of the year and one of the system's first truly big tests.

The system allows fast-moving "expert" travelers to choose one line; those somewhat familiar with security point regulations to choose another and novices and families traveling with small children to choose a third.

At Terminal One (for all airlines except Delta — the only Salt Lake terminal using the new system), average wait times decreased to 2.7 minutes this Memorial Day weekend, a 54 percent drop from the six-minute average wait a year earlier.

Also, the maximum wait time measured for any passenger over the holiday weekend this year was 14 minutes, hit by some passengers on Friday, May 23. The maximum average wait a year earlier was 25 minutes, almost twice as long. That wait time was hit by passengers on three different days last year over the long five-day, Thursday-to-Tuesday travel weekend.

The longest average wait time during peak periods of this year's holiday was 11 minutes, hit during peak times on Friday, May 23. The longest last year was 19.2 minutes, hit on the Monday of that holiday weekend.

Those improvements came while virtually identical numbers of passengers passed through the checkpoint in both years.

Why is the new system so much faster?

"What it does as much as anything is calm down travelers. They can choose to be with people who have the same needs and abilities," Baird said. So businessmen aren't tapping their feet and looking at watches, wishing families with line-clogging strollers would move faster, making those families more nervous and bumbling.