A California Airport Wants to Let You Say Goodbye at the Gate Again
Fresno Yosemite International Airport is considering bringing back one of the most emotionally significant things air travel used to offer — the gate-side goodbye.
Aviation director Mark Thorpe is exploring a program that would allow non-ticketed visitors to pass through TSA security and accompany their loved ones all the way to the departure gate, or meet arriving family members before they reach baggage claim. The airport hopes to have something in place before the end of 2026.
"Whether it's a family welcoming someone home who's been gone for a long time, getting dinner at the airport or holding a business meeting, an airport can help create all these different experiences for people," Thorpe told the Fresno Bee.
If it happens, Fresno would join a quiet but growing movement of U.S. airports walking back one of the most visible and emotionally costly policy changes that came out of September 11.
What Changed After 9/11
Before the attacks, airports were social spaces. Non-ticketed visitors routinely passed through security and waited at gates — watching planes, having coffee, saying real goodbyes rather than curbside ones. Gate access didn't require a boarding pass. You went because you wanted to see someone off.
That ended on September 11, 2001. Within weeks, virtually every U.S. airport restricted terminal access to ticketed passengers only. The policy has stayed in place for 25 years — with narrow exceptions, like airlines occasionally issuing gate passes for parents accompanying unaccompanied minors or passengers with mobility needs.
The Trend That's Already Growing
Fresno wouldn't be doing anything radical. It would be following a trend that Pittsburgh International Airport quietly started in 2017 when it became the first major U.S. airport to formally allow non-passengers into secure areas after 9/11.
As of this summer, 21 U.S. airports now offer some form of guest pass program, including San Francisco International, Seattle-Tacoma International, and Kansas City International. Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport launched its own guest pass program in December 2025. Palm Springs, San Diego, and John Wayne Airport in Orange County have also been offering them for some time.
The programs vary. Some require online applications up to seven days in advance. Some allow same-day applications with approval arriving by email within about 15 minutes. All require visitors to carry a passport or REAL ID-compliant identification and go through the same TSA screening as ticketed passengers.
Capacity limits apply at most participating airports — show up last-minute and you might find the program full for that day.
Why This Matters Beyond Convenience
There's a real human cost to curbside-only goodbyes that rarely gets acknowledged in policy conversations. Military families sending someone off to deployment. Parents watching a child leave for college across the country. People saying goodbye to someone they know is seriously ill. The gate-side moment — being able to sit together for one more hour, to wave through the window, to hug again at the last possible second — was something that mattered to people in ways that are hard to quantify.
The move to curbside drop-off didn't eliminate those feelings. It just moved them to a parking garage or a passenger pickup lane, with a TSA agent waving traffic along.
Airports that have reintroduced guest passes report that the programs have been received well by travelers. The security concern that originally drove the restriction — ensuring that only vetted, ticketed individuals were in secure areas — is addressed by putting visitors through the same TSA screening as everyone else.
Fresno's Thorpe also noted the economic angle. Non-ticketed visitors inside the terminal represent potential retail and dining revenue that airports have been leaving on the table for 25 years. That's not the reason to support the policy — but it helps explain why more airports are finally looking at it seriously.
A goodbye at the gate used to be ordinary. For most of the past 25 years it's been a small, quiet loss that nobody really named. Fresno wants to give it back.
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