The Transportation Security Administration this week said it is extending by 30 days to Nov. 21 the comment period for Secure Flight, the government's new passenger-prescreening system. TSA said it is heeding industry requests for more time to evaluate the program's impact.
The Air Transport Association in a filing last week sought 60 additional days for comments, claiming that implementation of the proposed program would be "a complex undertaking, the consequences of which must be clearly understood."
The latest incarnation of Secure Flight proposes to shift watchlist-matching from the airlines to the government and requires carriers and travel agencies to act as repositories and transmitters of new passenger data fields. That role would require an investment in new systems and processes, industry representatives said
(BTN, Oct. 8). TSA proposed carriers and agencies would need to comply with the new requirements 60 days after a final rule is issued—an unreasonable timeframe, airline and agency groups said.
Under the proposed rule, ATA said airlines would have to request up to 11 new pieces of passenger data at the time of booking or checkin, and also would have to add "a new TSA-mandated bar code on boarding passes." ATA said those requirements would create "substantial new data collection, operational and information technology demands on air carriers." Therefore, the implications of the proposed Secure Flight "need to be carefully evaluated."
The American Society of Travel Agents said portions of the proposed rule need clarifications or changes. New Secure Flight requirements "understate dramatically the cost of compliance by travel agencies and do not allow enough time from final publication to effective date for the industry to comply," ASTA said in a government filing this month.
TSA in late August submitted its notice of proposed rulemaking for the "rebaselined" program, narrowing its focus on watchlist-matching, with the sole aim of preventing terrorists from boarding airplanes
(BTN, Aug. 13).