TSA To Assume All Watchlist Matching For U.S. Carriers By June, All Carriers By January

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is on track to assume watchlist matching from all U.S. carriers by the end of May, only slightly behind its March 31 U.S. implementation target for the Secure Flight passenger prescreening system, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

The Secure Flight program also calls for TSA to assume watchlist matching from foreign carriers, and the agency already is working with 19 airlines outside the United States to do so. Five of those carriers are fully functional within the program, and an additional 14 are testing, GAO reported. TSA plans to take on the watchlist matching function for U.S. and foreign carriers "for all international flights departing to and from the United States by December 2010, assuming the air carriers make the necessary system changes as required to be compliant with the Secure Flight final rule," GAO said in the report.

TSA on Aug. 15, 2009, directed U.S. airlines and the travel agencies that support them to begin collecting from passengers full names, dates of birth and gender to kick-start the program that replaces the computer-assisted passenger prescreening system.

TSA initially targeted to take over watchlist matching by the end of March 2010, but GAO said TSA as of March 31 had assumed that function for only 39 U.S. carriers on all U.S. flights. It partially assumed watchlist matching with another 11 carriers and remains in the testing phase with the remaining 19. The report did not identify the carriers, but GAO said, "TSA plans to complete assumption of the watchlist-matching function from air carriers for all U.S. flights in May 2010."

"To date, TSA has not experienced any unexpected challenges with aircraft operators currently testing with Secure Flight that would necessitate an extension to the schedule, according to program officials," GAO reported.