TSA’s Gateside Program Now Live at 13 US Airports – Here’s the List

If you remember walking your kids to the gate, or standing at the window with your mom watching your plane pull up, you probably haven’t been able to do either since about 2001. It used to be all part of the fun and heightened the excitement of being at the airport.

On September 10, 2026, the TSA announced a new program called Gateside by TSA PreCheck, and it’s already up and running at 13 US airports. If you’re enrolled in TSA PreCheck, you can request a free pass to go through security and into the terminal without a boarding pass. 

This means you can meet someone at the gate, have lunch with a friend on a long layover, or greet a service member coming home. But there are quite a few catches.

What is TSA’s Gateside Program

Gateside is a special authorization that lets eligible non-travelers with TSA PreCheck screening go past the security checkpoint and into parts of the airport that, until now, only ticketed passengers could reach. You still go through the PreCheck lane, you still get screened, you still show ID.

Once you’re through, you can do what any passenger would do inside the terminal. TSA has been fairly clear about the appeal, saying the point is to make send-offs and welcomes easier and to bring some spending back to airport shops and restaurants that lost the non-flying crowd a quarter of a century ago.

Each airport caps how many Gateside passes it issues per day, and availability can be tight during busy periods. TSA spokesperson Daniel Velez has said the program won’t suddenly bring thousands of people who slow the security lines down, and the numbers so far back that up.

The 13 Airports Where It’s Live Right Now

Gateside launched on September 1, and as of the announcement, it is live at 13 airports across the country. The list, in no particular order:

• Little Rock, Arkansas (LIT) 
• Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (DFW) 
• Detroit, Michigan (DTW) 
• Las Vegas, Nevada (LAS) 
• Indianapolis, Indiana (IND) 
• Columbus, Ohio, at John Glenn Columbus International 
• Los Angeles, California (LAX) 
• Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, Arizona 
• Omaha, Nebraska, at Eppley Airfield 
• Salt Lake City, Utah (SLC) 
• San Diego, California (SAN) 
• Wichita, Kansas, at Dwight D. Eisenhower National 
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (OKC) at Will Rogers International

TSA has said this is a phased rollout and more airports are being added in the coming months, so if your home airport isn’t on the list yet, it may well be soon.

A couple of these airports, including Detroit Metro and San Diego, already run their own gate pass schemes, and Gateside sits alongside those rather than replacing them. 

If you’ve used one of those local passes before, this is a slightly different creature and the rules aren’t identical.

How to Actually Get a Gateside Pass

The whole thing hinges on being a TSA PreCheck member, so if you aren’t one, that’s step one, and it is a slower process than most people expect. 

Approval waits have stretched out a lot lately, so don’t leave it until the week before you want to meet your daughter at the gate.

Assuming you’re already in PreCheck, this is the sequence: 

1. Go to TSA.gov/gateside one to three days before you want to visit the airport. 
2. Put in your PreCheck Known Traveler Number, choose the airport, and submit. There’s no charge for the pass itself. 
3. You get approved status on the TSA PreCheck portal, and when you rock up at the airport, you show an acceptable ID (a REAL ID or passport) and, if asked, your approval on the portal.

Your Gateside pass is valid for one calendar day, and you can go in and out that day if you need to. If the airport has already hit its daily cap when you apply, you will be turned down for that date, so pick a less obvious moment if you have flexibility.

Children under 18 can come along at no extra cost, but you need to add them to the approved adult’s reservation, the same way kids 17 and under can join a parent through PreCheck lanes when they’re on the same booking.

If you turn up without an acceptable form of identification, you can try to verify your identity through TSA’s ConfirmID service, but that costs $45 and isn’t guaranteed.

How To Ensure a Smooth Process

You’re being screened like a passenger, which means every rule that applies to a ticketed traveler applies to you. No oversized liquids, no prohibited items, no forgetting there’s a pocket knife in the bottom of your handbag. The Phoenix-Mesa Gateway spokesman put it plainly: no exceptions for liquids or sharp items.

You also have to behave like a passenger. Gateside visitors are held to the same airport code of conduct as anyone flying, which is spelled out in federal regulations. Break them and your pass can be revoked, you can be asked to leave, and in more serious cases you can face civil or criminal penalties.

One quirk that has already caused some confusion: Gateside doesn’t give you access through the TSA PreCheck Touchless ID lanes, and depending on how the airport is running things that day, officers can send you to a different screening lane.

In the first weeks of any new TSA program, frontline officers are still getting up to speed, so if you turn up with an approved pass and the checkpoint staff waves you off, politely ask for a supervisor. 

Top Tip: If you have a credit card that reimburses PreCheck or Global Entry enrollment fees, use it before paying out of pocket. A lot of travel cards cover this, and most people forget.

Enrollment starts as low as $77.95 for five years through one of three authorized providers (CLEAR, IDEMIA, or Telos); the appointment itself is about 10 minutes, and most people get their Known Traveler Number within three to five days.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not professional advice. It may contain affiliate links. Please see our full Editorial Policy for details.