Tens of thousands of travelers standing in interminable security lines this holiday weekend will, at least momentarily, entertain fantasies of revenge against the Transportation Security Administration.
Airports could actually do something about the hated agency, and a few are weighing a radical option: firing TSA screeners and hiring private replacements.
The frustration over queue times-which have topped two and three hours at airports in Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte and Denver-has prompted new attention by airport executives to the TSA’s little-known Screening Partnership Program, in which the federal agency solicits bids for a contractor to handle airport screening.
The contractors must follow the same security protocols as federal officers, with similar wages and benefits.
At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, where screening glitches sent 3,000 checked bags to a parking lot earlier this month, administrators are “discussing a variety of options,” including replacing the TSA with a private contractor, said Deborah Ostreicher, assistant aviation director at the airport. Sky Harbor officials have considered their TSA service “less than satisfactory for many months,” she said. The Phoenix airport is a hub for American Airlines, which has blamed the TSA delays across the country for causing more than 70,000 passengers to miss flights so far this year .
The former general manager of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport wrote a letter to the TSA in February warning that the world’s busiest airport was “conducting exhaustive research” into privatized security screening. The airport manager, Miguel Southwell, was fired on May 20. The airport did not respond to a request for comment on its screening plans.
The power to replace TSA employees with private screeners dates to the birth of the agency in 2002, shortly after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. Congress designated five airports at the time to offer screening by private firms as a way to compare the federal approach. Another 17 smaller airports have since joined the original five. The most recent to make the switch to private security screeners, Punta Gorda Airport in Florida, expects to finish the transition next week. San Francisco International is the largest U.S. airport with private screeners.
Now other large airports are researching private-sector alternatives. “I’ve talked to a number of airports and I know they’re inquiring and doing their homework,” said Ian Redhead, one of the original five with private screeners. “I don’t think it’s an idle threat. Airport directors don’t make idle threats like that because it really doesn’t accomplish anything.”
Commissioners at the Port of Seattle spent much of a meeting this week learning about the private security program and whether it would improve passenger flows at Seattle Tacoma International. The port is spending $3.3 million over the next four months on 90 contractors to help manage TSA lines, which have snarled passenger traffic at SeaTac terminals since April. Commissioners-who also heard from several TSA officers who opposed private screening-asked airport executives to collect further data on the program.
Jeff Holmgren, the TSA federal security director at the Seattle airport, told the commission “there is no statistical difference in terms of effectiveness or efficiency” between federal and private screeners. That’s the official position of the TSA, which argues there is no correlation between security wait times and the use of federal or contracted screeners.
The handful of larger airports with private screeners don’t offer proof that the change would improve the travel experience. The Kansas City airport has seen longer lines and a spike in missed flights this spring due to staffing levels in a new contract with New Mexico-based screening firm Akal Security. “The amount of staff is controlled by the contract,” Redhead said. Screening firms “can’t just go and increase to X number of bodies.”
The TSA budget, which covers federal staff and private contractors, is the critical component in security wait times. Trade groups for U.S. airlines and airports this week called for Congress to stop removing $1.25 billion in annual airline ticket funds from the TSA budget. In 2013, lawmakers diverted a portion of the $5.60 Sept. 11 security fee on each flight segment toward deficit reduction. ” That revenue diversion decision has come home to roost,” Airlines for America said in a news release .
Security experts say more screening officers, more travelers enrolled in the TSA’s PreCheck program, and greater use of dog sniffers-allowing passengers to retain their shoes and belts-would do the most to unclog the long lines at airports. TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger has called for an additional 5,400 staff at airports.
