I thought the TSA mandates that only tickets pax can pass thru security. How can they pass without in LAS as the article says? Las Vegas airport tries souped-up check-in kiosks By Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY The Las Vegas airport is set to unveil a new type of self-service kiosk that some industry insiders say will do for airport lines what ATMs did for the bank teller queues — shorten them. The machines making their debut next month will be the first at any airport in the world to issue passenger boarding passes for multiple airlines, industry officials say. Many airlines now use similar kiosks, but they're only equipped to handle that airline's customers. (More stories: Travel front page) Las Vegas' SpeedCheck machines initially will be accessible to America West, Continental and Delta passengers. Up to a dozen airlines could be online by summer's end, including Southwest, the airport's largest carrier. Eventually, McCarran International will have as many as 42 kiosks accessible to passengers on all 28 airlines there, officials say. Other airports are expected to roll out similar kiosks, says Colin Temple, manager of airport services for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global airline trade group. IATA is helping to develop a standard operating platform for the common-use kiosks, which Temple says will let other airports easily adopt the system. But for Las Vegas, SpeedCheck's advantages hit closer to home. The Transportation Security Administration will soon require Las Vegas travelers to obtain their boarding passes before passing through security, a mandate already in place at many airports. That threatens to put a huge strain on McCarran, which has one of the highest volumes of travelers flying directly to or from the airport because of Las Vegas' popularity as a day-trip destination. Requiring all of those passengers to have boarding passes in hand would likely create huge lines at both ticket counters and individual airline kiosks. That's a problem airport officials hope the multi-airline kiosks can help them avoid. SpeedCheck kiosks will be installed in traditional check-in areas and clustered at locations throughout the airport — such as the parking garage — which will eliminate bottlenecks and increase the check-in capacity of the airport. Even the city's convention center is expected to get SpeedCheck kiosks, allowing business travelers to have their boarding passes in hand even before hailing a cab to the airport. Unlike the airline-owned kiosks, the SpeedCheck system will be set up and maintained almost exclusively by McCarran airport. That helps minimize costs for airlines already struggling financially. Even with the maintenance costs, the kiosks could save the airport tens of millions of dollars by avoiding the need to expand ticketing areas, says McCarran official Samuel Ingalls, who's been working on the project. "Those savings extend to the airlines as well because, in the process, we're lowering their cost of doing business here," he says. Roger EWROPS