US Transportation Security Administration’s passenger vetting programme comes into effect

The United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has started implementing its Secure Flight passenger vetting programme from May 15, 2009. The passenger vetting programme will ask airline passengers to enter their full name – precisely as it appears on the government-issued identification they are travelling with – when making flight reservations.

The Transportation Security Administration, a law-enforcement agency of the United Stated government, is a part of the US Department of Homeland Security.

Though the TSA is authorised to oversee security for highways, railroads, buses, mass transit systems, pipelines, ports as well as airports, the bulk of the agency’s responsibility concerns security in the aviation sector.

The Transportation Security Administration has said that asking passengers to enter their full name was just “the first publicly noticeable” phase of the Secure Flight initiative.

According to the programme, the TSA will take over the pre-flight security check of matching passengers to the “do-not-fly” watch-list database from individual airlines.

In the second phase of the Secure Flight initiative, which begins on August 15, 2009, passengers would be required to enter their date of birth, gender and watch-list redress number (if available) while booking flights.

Gale Rossides, acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said that the Secure Flight initiative would make air travel “safer and easier by enhancing and streamlining the watch-list matching process.”

“For the near future,” Rossides explained, “the TSA would let airline passengers get away with small differences” between their ID and their reservation information, such as the use of a middle initial instead of a full middle name.

However, “over time, the passengers must obtain consistency between the name on their government-issued ID and the travel information they use for booking flights.”

By enhancing and streamlining the watch-list matching process, Gale Rossides said, the Secure Flight programme “would make travel safer and easier for millions of Americans.”

The US Transportation Security Administration’s Secure Flight passenger vetting programme is one of the key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.

According to the TSA, when the Secure Flight’s advanced technology is fully implemented by early 2010, heightened matching of the watch-list would be done by the US government.

Airlines would be then required to collect a passenger’s full name, date of birth, and gender when making an airline reservation to determine if the passenger is a match to the No-Fly or Selectee lists.

By providing the additional data on gender and date of birth, the TSA said, the Secure Flight initiative would  more effectively help prevent misidentification of passengers who have similar names to individuals on the watch-list.

It would ensure better identify individuals who might pose a known or suspected threat to aviation.”

The US Transportation Security Administration aid that it aimed at vetting 100% of passengers on all domestic commercial flights by early 2010 and 100% of passengers on all international commercial flights by the end of 2010.