US court rules that TSA miscalculated screening fees for airlines, orders recalculation

A federal appeals court of the United States has ruled that the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) incorrectly increased annual fees that it imposes on airlines for screening of passengers and property.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit also ordered the Transportation Security Administration to recalculate the amount of fees.

This ruling, airlines say, could lead to saving them hundreds of millions of dollars.

Airlines, including all the major carriers based in the United States, have complained that they have overpaid the TSA by about $100 million annually since 2005. In a statement, these airlines said that they were seeking to regain those payments and also to get the screening fees reduced.

The Transportation Security Administration, an agency of the United States government, is responsible for security in all modes of transportation in the US.

The TSA took over security at airports in the United States after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and US Congress authorised the TSA to impose fees to fund its security services.

The appeals court said that the Transportation Security Administration erred when it calculated the overall limit on the fees that it can charge. The law stipulates that the TSA’s calculations be tied to how much the airlines spent on screening passengers and baggage in 2000, before the process was taken over by the federal government.

In a unanimous verdict, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that that the TSA was wrong to include the cost of screening non-passengers, such as greeters and sightseers, in its estimates of security costs.

The airlines had argued in court filings that they should get back the $100 million-plus that they have been paying annually since 2005 – which, according to them, comes to one-fourth of their payments to TSA.

Before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, airlines themselves used to pay for the cost of screening passengers and bags.

The airlines also contended that they spent $123 million on screening non-passengers in 2000, the last full year before the terror attacks.

The website cnn.com quoted an economist hired by the aggrieved airlines as saying that the US Transportation Security Administration’s imposition of fees for screening of non-passengers in its calculations has resulted in the agency overcharging the airline industry by $123 million a year.

Roy Goldberg, a lawyer who represented 22 airlines that challenged in court the Transportation Security Administration’s calculation of the security fees, was quoted by the website as commenting that a large percentage of these fees have been found to be unlawful.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the US Transportation Security Administration said that it viewed the federal appeals court’s ruling “as another positive step in resolving this ongoing dispute with air carriers.” While maintaining that the appeals court “upheld its methodology of assigning fees to air carriers,” the agency promised to review the decision to assess its overall effect on screening fees.

Southwest Airlines, the low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas, the United States, said in a press release that it would lose the most money if the Transportation Security Administration “does not adjust the security screening fees” and that the agency had overcharged Southwest Airlines $24 million annually since 2005.