The U.S. Transportation Security Administration today said it has implemented components of its new Secure Flight passenger prescreening system, which shifts watchlist-matching responsibilities from airlines to the government. TSA said it already has assumed watchlist-matching from four unidentified commercial carriers and will transition the process to more "in the coming months."
TSA said it expects to prescreen passengers on "100 percent of all domestic commercial flights by early 2010 and 100 percent of all international commercials flights by the end of 2010."
TSA in October 2008 announced the final rules for the program, which calls for carriers and travel agencies to collect a passenger's full name, date of birth and gender at the time of reservation. The American Society of Travel Agents in January issued guidance to agencies on data-collection requirements to fulfill the new system
(BTNonline, Jan. 20).
TSA in a statement today said, "By providing the additional data elements of gender and date of birth, Secure Flight will more effectively help prevent misidentification of passengers who have similar names to individuals on the watchlist." That information will be matched against "No Fly" or "Selectee" lists, TSA said.
Former TSA administrator Kip Hawley in January told
BTN that those additional elements would cut down on instances of false-positives that occur when names partially or fully match those on watchlists. TSA today also noted the system "protects sensitive watchlist data and enables officials to address security threats sooner, keeping air travel safer" and creates a "consistent matching process across all airlines."
TSA today said the second stage of implementation, slated for late this year, "will assume the watch list matching function for passengers on international flights from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and international air carriers."