Privatized Registered Traveler: The Right Program At The Right Time

The Transportation Security Administration's Registered Traveler program will undoubtedly have an impact on the agency's resources when it goes forward beginning this summer. Those who suggest that the program will rob other important TSA programs such as Secure Flight of sufficient resources, however, are wrong. People with knowledge of the TSA resource situation today will tell you this: Congress is willing to pay about $4.2 billion annually to do the job of passenger and baggage screening at the nation's airports and each year President Bush suggests a lesser amount to be supplemented by various user fees to be paid by airlines or airline passengers.

The bottom line is that doing the aviation security job right requires additional resources beyond what Congress provides and the President requests if for no other reason than to accommodate year-over-year growth. The Registered Traveler program is the best innovation currently on the scene to do just that—get TSA new and sorely needed resources and not use up those already on the table.

Here's how: Those companies who are either in or about to enter the Registered Traveler business propose to pay for equipment at dedicated airport security lanes. They propose to pay the cost of the screeners at those lanes and likely for other related costs. This means that the passengers who pass through these lanes are not using up TSA's $4.2 billion and that that there are fewer passengers to process for the same budget. Private-sector dollars will be supporting passenger screening operations, paying for equipment (which often will be more advanced than at non-RT checkpoints) and for maintenance. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that RT reduces TSA's resource stress and creates a way to accommodate growth in passenger flows without more taxpayer resources.

It's true that some airports have been concerned about whether an RT program could be self-sustaining. For that to be true, you have to conclude that airports are incompetent negotiators and that they will enter into money-losing contracts. Given the pretty robust state of airport finances I, for one, am not overly worried that they will make bad business deals. In short, there ought to be a high degree of confidence that the structure of the deals will preclude any airport from incurring costs on an RT program.

Finally, if lines aren't long and all is well for airline passengers at TSA checkpoints, then those companies that want to enter the voluntary credentialing marketplace will assuredly fail. What doesn't make sense is why some aviation leaders want the government to take action to prevent entrepreneurs from making what they believe are questionable business deals. Last time I checked, we still had a pretty strong commitment to a free market economy in the United States.

Kathryn W. Sudeikis, American Society of Travel Agents President and CEO.