Almost 20 years after the airline passengers were first required to remove their safety shoes, the policy is being eliminated.
The transport security administration (TSA) plans to allow passengers to maintain their shoes when they pass through the general security line at many important airports throughout the country, two sources told ABC News.
An unexpected memorandum went to the TSA officers throughout the country last week that declared that the new policy will allow all passengers to keep their shoes on all projection lanes in many airports throughout the country, starting on Sunday.
Air travelers go through the security of TSA at the John Wayne airport in Santa Ana, CA, May 7, 2025.
Jeff Gitchen/Medaks Group/Orange County Register through Getty Images
The objective is to launch the new policy to all US airports shortly, according to the memo. Previously, only passengers in the TSA Precheck line could keep their shoes on most cases.
The transport agency has been looking for an innovative way to allow passengers to move faster through the security control points.
However, passengers that activate the alarm in the scanners or magnetometers must take off their shoes for an additional projection, according to the Memo.
This is an important change since TSA began to demand passengers to take off their shoes in 2006.
The policy occurred five years after Richard Reid tried to fly an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami with explosives full in his shoes. The explosives could not detonate and Reid was retained by other passengers and the flight crew.
ABC News has communicated with TSA for a comment.
