The Transportation Security Administration will start charging $45 on Feb. 1 to any adult travelers who show up at U.S. airports without a REAL ID, a passport, military identification or other “acceptable” form of identification.
The fee, which is more than double the previously proposed fee, will potentially be levied against hundreds of travelers passing through security checkpoints at Portland International Airport each day. According to data provided by the Port of Portland, which operates the airport, an average of about 24,000 travelers pass through TSA’s security checkpoints on a given day and about 2% of travelers fail to carry TSA-approved identification. They must go through additional screening — for which federal officials now plan to charge.
TSA proposed a new fee of $18 on Nov. 20, but didn’t set an implementation date. In December, the agency announced the fee would actually be $45 and set the start date for February. Once travelers pay, they won’t have to pay again while traveling over the next 10 days, TSA said in a news release in December.
Federal officials say the money will help pay for a “modernized alternative identity verification program” that will verify the identities of travelers if they don’t present a TSA-approved form of ID, including the heavily promoted REAL ID.
For Oregonians, it would be cheaper to get a REAL ID, which costs $30 on top of the price of acquiring a standard driver license, which is $64 for first-time applicants and $54 for drivers who are renewing their licenses.
Congress passed REAL ID requirements in 2005 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They were supposed to go into effect in 2008. But the implementation has been repeatedly delayed.
According to TSA, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem started implementing the ID requirements in May 2025, though that’s not what’s happened in reality. TSA officials still allow many travelers to pass through security, as long as they go through additional screening measures.
The identification requirements only apply to adults, not children, whom the agency indicated in November will not have to pay the fee.
A TSA senior official, Adam Stahl, said in a news release in December that confirming the identities of people at airport security checkpoints keeps terrorists, criminals and immigrants who aren’t in the U.S. legally from flying.
“We must ensure everyone who flies is who they say they are,” Stahl said.
