Special suite at LAX will let stars and the world’s wealthy glide directly from their limo to their first-class seat without having to interact with the public. Welcome to the 1%’s new airport terminal. Los Angeles international airport on Thursday won approval to build a special terminal to allow celebrities, sports stars and the world’s wealthy to glide directly from their chauffeur-driven limo to their first-class seat without having to interact with any of the general travelling public.

We’ve written before about states developing applications for paperless driver’s licenses. Now Australia is taking it one step further: Paperless passports. The country is already fairly advanced in passport technology. Australia supports ePassports, meaning it can read chips on passports and automatically takes photographs of everyone entering and leaving the country. “An ePassport contains a chip storing information about the passport holder such as their photo...

A man who implanted a microchip containing his airline booking details into his hand was able to use it to pass effortlessly through security to his flight. Andreas Sjöström, vice president of digital for technology consulting company Sogeti, had the near-field communication chip (NFC) about the size of a grain of rice injected into his hand with a syringe, before using it at Stockholm Arlanda Airport to pass through security and board his plane.

Passengers arriving at Kennedy Airport on an international flight were allowed to exit the busy hub without going through Customs — for at least the second time in recent months, the Daily News has learned. Bumbling airline and security officials let travelers on American Airlines Flight 1223 from Cancun, Mexico, out of the airport on Monday morning without having their passports or bags checked, sources told The News.

The Serb pilot who landed a jetliner in Somalia with a three-foot hole on its fuselage said Sunday he never doubted that it was caused by a bomb and describes the security surround the airplane at Mogadishu Airport as "zero." A suicide bomber is suspected to have set off the explosive inside the plane, Somali officials said Saturday. The blast sucked a male passenger out of the plane and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing Tuesday in Somalia's capital, they said.

A TSA agent was arrested this week after allegedly stealing a $1,000 watch from a passenger's bag that was going through a security screening, officials confirmed Friday. At about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, police say witnesses allegedly saw Daniel Ortiz, Jr., 39, remove the watch from a passenger's bag during the screening process, and place it into his pocket. Ortiz, of Woodland Park, was on duty as a Transportation Security Administration...

Brussels Airport has reopened with three "symbolic" flights and strict additional checks for passengers, marking a new high-security era for air travel in Belgium after attacks by Islamic State suicide bombers. The key travel hub has been closed since two men blew themselves up in the departure hall on March 22 in coordinated blasts that also struck a metro station in the Belgian capital, killing a total of 32 people. A Brussels Airlines plane bound for the Portuguese city of Faro...

As small drones have become increasingly commonplace, so have reports of close calls by airliners. A recent FAA report tallied the average at four sightings a day, a five-fold increase from the year before. To help address the issue, the American Association of Airport Executives, a trade group representing 850 of the largest airports around the US, has partnered with a startup called AirMap on a Digital Notice and Awareness System, or D-NAS for short. AirMap will collect data...

Pressure mounted on the Transportation Security Administration Wednesday to fix long lines at Sea-Tac when the airport director told KIRO 7 he is considering all options, including replacing the TSA with private security contractors. "It's really a sign of us looking outside the box," Lance Lyttle said. "We have a problem and we can't operate the same way and expect different results." Lyttle said no decisions have been made and that the idea is still in the exploratory stage.

Finally, some good news about TSA lines: you can likely expect them to be shorter soon, thanks to a new bill. Earlier this year, we warned you about longer wait times at airports this year, primarily because the TSA has become incredibly understaffed.

The plan to shrink lines relies on growing PreCheck, but the contractor in charge of doing just that is stopping the process. Meanwhile, passengers wait for hours in large groups that are juicy targets for terrorists. The Transportation Security Administration would have us believe that those outrageous waits at airport checkpoints that made headlines recently were caused by a screener shortage or a surge in passengers. But there’s another reason for the crushing lines: a private contractor.

After anticipating extra long airport security lines this year, the Transportation Security Administration has taken steps to fix the problem. Their latest solution involves adding new screening technology to Chicago (O’Hare), Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, and Miami. They’ll also include a pilot program in Phoenix. The TSA and American Airlines will install automatic screeners that handle travelers’ carry-on luggage and, according to the TSA, will reduce wait times by about 30 percent. They rolled out a similar program with Delta in Atlanta.

A woman with two small children has been arrested at Frankfurt Airport after she was suspected of carrying a bomb in her bag. Police found traces of explosives in her bag after she was stopped for a security check at the terminal. The incident caused the evacuation of a terminal, plunged passengers into panic and caused long delays for incoming and outgoing flights. After she was arrested police reported no explosive device or material was found but that traces of explosives were discovered in her rucksack. She continues to be questioned.

At least one person has been shot dead at Oklahoma City airport. The facility is on lock down while police deal with the incident and all arrivals and departures have been suspended until further notice. The facility is on lock down while police deal with the incident and all arrivals and departures have been suspended until further notice.

Unknown gunmen killed five female Afghan guards working at an airport in southern Kandahar on Saturday, highlighting the continuing threat faced by women working outside of the home in Afghanistan. Gunmen on a motorbike fired on a vehicle carrying the women to Kandahar International Airport, where they were responsible for searching luggage and female passengers, officials said. The driver was also killed.

Yet another reason to renew that passport sooner rather than later. Bad news for Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington: Starting January 22, 2018, driver's licenses issued by these states will no longer be accepted at TSA checkpoints. They fail to meet the federal government’s minimum security standards under the Real ID Act. Instead, travelers have to use another form of identification to pass through security for domestic flights—think military ID, permanent resident card, or passport.

Moguls, tycoons, celebrities can now skip LAX crowds, for a fee. By Steve Lopez.

A single-point failure makes the world’s busiest airport go dark for hours and traps thousands of passengers. It’s what phase one of an attack could look like. By Clive Irving.

Bizarre stuff. By Kate Erbland.

United Airlines has teamed up with Private Suite to offer a separate terminal at the south end of the runways at Los Angeles International Airport. Guests can wait for their flights in a private lounge stocked with drinks and food. By Hugo Martin.