Firm providing US airport 'fast lanes' shuts down

Clear, a company which pre-screened travellers and issued high-tech cards allowing them to whisk through security lines at US airports, is going out of business.

Clear, in a brief statement on its website, flyclear.com, announced it had ceased operating "fast lanes" at designated US airports as of late Monday.

"Clear's parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations," the statement said.

Clear members paid an annual fee of 199 dollars to have their identities authenticated through fingerprints and iris scans and were issued a card allowing them to pass through security checkpoints faster.

Clear cards were accepted at 21 US airports, according to a recent statement from the company, which claimed that it had signed up some 260,000 members for the "registered traveler" program, which began in July 2005.

Clear was founded by Steven Brill, the founder of Court TV.

Brill and two other veteran US media executives launched a company in April, Journalism Online, designed to help ailing US newspapers and other publications make money on the Web by charging readers for news.

(c) 2009 AFP