From Arlene Fleming,
Your Guide to Air Travel.
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There have been so many changes in air travel in the last year it could make your head spin. The latest has been in the works for some time. Passport requirements for air travel are drastically changing, and these changes are effective January 23, 2007.

You will have great difficulty getting a passport in the days leading up to the deadline, as the mad scramble for a passport becomes even more pressing.

The changes to passport requirements are proving quite confusing. Requirements for traveling outside of North America and the Caribbean have not changed, you required a passport to travel. It is travel by air within the Americas that is having the biggest shift, particularly for Americans and Canadians. Given the less than straightforward regulations, here is a synopsis of what you must have to travel with when you fly (details are taken from the U.S. State Department but also apply to travelers from Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America):

• The regulations fall under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), and is to be implemented in two phases - air travel as of January 23, 2007, and land and sea in 2008
• "ALL persons, including U.S. citizens, traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda will be required to present a valid passport, Air NEXUS card, or U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document, or an Alien Registration Card, Form I-551".
• You do not require a passport if you are a U.S. citizen traveling to / returning from a U.S. territory directly. U.S. territories include: Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Swains Island, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
• Passports are required for U.S. and Canadian citizens traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean (essentially, all of the Americas are included so all citizens of these countries will require passports to travel by air to another country within the Americas).
• In lieu of a passport, under the current regulations the following documents are acceptable for the time being: SENTRI, NEXUS, FAST, and the U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document.
• Those in the U.S. Armed Forces on active duty traveling on orders continue to be exempt from the passport requirement.