Starting May 7, 2025 (today), a REAL ID driver’s license is required to travel within the United States: alternatives do exist but driver’s licenses are ubiquitous for intra-national air travel. To get a REAL ID you must provide additional documentation to confirm where you live, such as utility bills or mortgage statements, and your social security number. An updated REAL ID is required each time you move (technically true for a regular driver’s license), though am unable to explain how any government agency would know that you have (or haven’t) moved.
Overall the value proposition is lost on me, as it was for the states that pushed back (including Minnesota): approved in 2005, the REAL ID Act was only fully implemented twenty years later.
I am old enough to remember when names on airline tickets were niceties, where possessing a physical ticket got you on the plane, where security was an afterthought and no where near as comprehensive and overbearing as it is currently. Airport security has been tightened over the years, usually as a response to a hijacking or terrorism, but in the not-too-distant past air travel was no where near as stressful.
In March, my wife and I traveled to Norway to take Hurtigruten’s Coastal Express north from Bergen to Kirkenes. Upon disembarking, we boarded a bus to take us to the Kirkenes Airport for our flight back to Oslo.
The airport process was familiar: kiosk self-checkin, bag drop, security, shops. After clearing security and sitting down to wait, I realized something fascinating: no one asked to see a passport or other identification! Security did check for valid boarding passes. The gate agent also checked for boarding passes; however no passports required as the flight took off and landed in Norway (the flight did fly over Sweden and Finland, not sure what happens if the plane is diverted).
What surprised me is how shocked, and almost uncomfortable I was by not having my identification checked. As a regular air traveler, including internationally, I accept the Big Brother security required of travelers; this exception to the general accepted rules of air travel was totally unexpected!
