Officially, airports have had the ability to opt out since November 2004. But TSA hasn’t been very responsive to such requests, and last year it stopped accepting them altogether.

 

Now, airports that want to go back to using private screeners should have an easier time making the switch. But before TSA will approve the change, airport officials must prove that contractors are more cost-effective and that they will provide an adequate level of security.

 

A report by the House Transportation Committee concluded that private contractors could be more cost-effective than TSA workers. The agency, however, insisted in its own report that private screeners would cost 3% more than federal ones, a calculation that the Government Accountability Office disagreed with.

 

Presently, 16 of the nation’s 450 airports use private contractors: San Francisco International Airport; Kansas City International Airport; Greater Rochester International Airport; Sioux Falls Regional Airport; Jackson Hole Airport; Tupelo Regional Airport; Key West International Airport; Charles M. Schultz-Sonoma County Airport; Roswell Industrial Air Center; and seven airports in Montana: Frank Wiley Field; Sidney Richland Regional; Dawson Community; L.M. Clayton; Wokal Field; Havre City County; and Lewiston Municipal.

 

So many travelers have become dissatisfied with TSA that it is easy to forget how dissatisfied people were with private security companies before TSA took over. In fact, the transition to government-run screening was prompted by the failure of private companies to prevent terrorists from boarding four different flights on September 11, 2001.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

New Law Clears the Way for Airports to Drop T.S.A. Screeners (by Ron Nixon, New York Times)

Airports Consider Opting Out of TSA Screening, Creating Big Profits for Private Companies (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)