What will new TSA regulations mean for your flight?

The Transportation Security Administration this week announced new security directives that mean airline passengers bound for the U.S. could face a number of new screening techniques.

Enhanced security measures - including full-body pat-downs, carry-on bag searches, full-body scanning and updated explosives screening – were instituted after a failed attack on a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab - a 23-year-old Nigerian passenger since linked to Al Qaeda – boarded Northwest Flight 253 from Nigeria with a small explosive device, but botched an attempt to ignite the explosives after connecting from Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport.

Airports are now required to abide by new TSA regulations when screening U.S.-bound international passengers, with a specific focus being placed on state sponsors of terrorism as well as other states being called “of interest” by the U.S. State Department.

The changes are unlikely to affect domestic travelers and focus mainly on passengers entering the U.S. from the 14 designated countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

International passengers are being advised to arrive earlier for U.S.-bound flights to accommodate for the new regulations, although concrete statistics regarding their impact will be difficult to determine until more time has elapsed.

Officials from Atlanta’ Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport could not be reached for comment, but a spokesperson for Atlanta-based Delta Airlines told reporters from the Wall Street Journal on Monday that the airline was not expecting the new guidelines to result in any meaningful delays.