ATLANTA — The Transportation Security Administration announced Thursday the nationwide rollout of a dedicated screening lane reserved exclusively for passengers who have just remembered, with apparent surprise, that they packed a full water bottle sometime in the last several days.

The lane, which TSA officials expect to accommodate approximately 94 percent of all air travelers, is projected to move more slowly than the standard security line it was designed to supplement.

"We've been studying the data for years," said Darren Mulch, the TSA's Deputy Director of Predictable Queue Pathologies. "The number-one cause of checkpoint delay is the traveler who loads their bag onto the belt, watches it enter the scanner, and then turns to their spouse and says, 'Oh my God, do you think the Hydro Flask counts?' The answer, historically, has been yes."

The new lane will be identifiable by signage reading "WATER BOTTLE / FORGOTTEN LIQUID LANE" and a secondary sign below it reading "YES, THAT INCLUDES YOUR YETI." Passengers discovered to have a full 32-ounce tumbler, a "mostly empty" SmartWater, or what one TSA memo described as "an artisanal reusable bottle containing what the passenger insists is just ice" will be redirected to the new queue, where agents specially trained in de-escalation will guide them through a five-step process of being told to either check the bag or throw the bottle away.

"We are not punishing anyone. We are simply acknowledging that this is a journey most passengers need to take, both literally and emotionally." — Darren Mulch, TSA Deputy Director of Predictable Queue Pathologies

The lane was piloted at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport over a six-week period, during which agents recorded 14,000 instances of a traveler holding a bottle up to a security light as though visual inspection might alter its liquid content. In 12,800 of those cases, the passenger ultimately surrendered the bottle, then spent an additional four minutes explaining that it was their favorite bottle and that they'd had it since college.

Consumer travel advocacy group Reasonable Skies praised the move as "long overdue," while simultaneously noting that a parallel lane for passengers who didn't remove their laptop, didn't take off their belt, and didn't realize they were wearing slip-on shoes until they were already barefoot on a cold floor "would handle the remaining six percent."

The TSA confirmed that a second dedicated lane — the "Wait, My Belt Has a Metal Buckle?" lane — is currently in the planning phase, with an anticipated opening date of 2027, pending a full environmental impact study.

Full implementation at all major U.S. airports is expected by the end of the fiscal year. The water bottle lanes will not, officials emphasized, fix anything.