Clear’s Dominance in Airports Could Be Coming to an End
The tech company that’s now a de facto arm of US airport security has faced issues with the TSA, airports and customers.
On a recent afternoon in Miami International Airport, a man bellowed to a crowd waiting for security: “You can skip this whole line! First two weeks free!” His pitch was for Clear, the now-ubiquitous $199-per-year subscription service that, with its glowing biometric identity machines, lets travelers cut security lines. Its customers are those road warriors or jet-setters or basically anyone who’s happy to pay to bypass the plebes.
Of course, Clear doesn’t allow you to actually skip security. It just gets you to the X-rays and pat-downs more quickly by letting you scan your fingerprints and irises to verify your identity instead of handing your ID to a TSA officer. Expediting that narrow slice of the travel headache has built Clear Secure Inc. an incredibly profitable business. The New York-based company is now worth more than airlines such as JetBlue Airways Corp. or Frontier Group Holdings Inc. It boasts over $700 million in annual revenue and a growth rate more akin to a software company than a travel service.
