Offering additional details on its forthcoming plans to trial risk-based screening concepts at passenger checkpoints, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will partner with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on pilot programs at select airports as early as September.

For airline passengers who are allowed to participate in the program, it means the possibility of expedited security screening although TSA did not offer specifics on what screening procedures these people might forego.

The known-traveler pilot tests will begin with certain frequent fliers of Delta Air Lines [DAL] and American Airlines [AMR] as well as certain members of CBP’s trusted-traveler programs, Global Entry, SENTRY and NEXUS, who are U.S citizens. For the Delta fliers and select CBP trusted travelers, the participating airports are Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta International and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County.

For the select American Airlines fliers CBP trusted travelers, the participating airports are Miami International and Dallas Fort Worth International.

TSA Administrator John Pistole has said several times this year he would initiate the intelligence-driven, risk-based passenger screening pilots this fall. Last week he discussed more details of the pilots with aviation stakeholders.

In addition to certain travelers being selected from CBP’s trusted traveler programs, the participating airlines will invite certain of their frequent fliers who may then choose to opt-in to the pilot test. The volunteers will then be vetted against watchlists. TSA did not provide specific detail on the extent to how these watchlist checks will differ from existing checks that all airline passengers are subject to under Secure Flight, which requires prospective travelers to submit their name, date of birth, and gender for the vetting procedures.

An agency spokesman tells TR2 that “If we can confirm a person’s identity and learn a little more about them through information they opt to provide, and combine that information with our other layers of security, we should be able to expedite the physical screening for many people.”

TSA says that all passengers in the pilot test are subject to recurrent security checks and random screening.

In the forthcoming pilot test, for passengers who pass the background checks, when they make a flight reservation they will have information embedded in the bar code on their boarding passes to identify them as being eligible for expedited screening. When a passenger arrives at the checkpoint and has his boarding pass scanned, he may be directed to a separate lane for expedited screening.

Welcome News

TSA’s announcement is welcome news for legislators and aviation stakeholders.

“There are serious challenges and gaps in our security,” says Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “If we continue to give extra screening to individuals who pose no threat, while others who should arouse suspicion bypass checkpoints without being questioned, our systems are clearly not working properly. I hope this effort will provide for more efficient use of the government’s limited screening resources, improve the security of travelers, and permit less intrusive and speedier screening procedures for the general public.”

The Air Transport Association, the International Air Transport Association, the U.S. Travel Association, and Global Business Travel Association say that Pistole’s announcement is a positive step toward adopting risk-based passenger screening.

“Allowing TSA to focus its finite resources on that which creates the greatest threat is both good policy and good security,” says Nicholas Calio, president and CEO of ATA.

ATA says that the two airlines any day will begin notifying select frequent fliers of their eligibility to participate in the trial. Volunteers will have to select one of the two airlines.

TSA says that the pilot will help it decide on how to move forward with risk-based, intelligence-driven security measures that would allow travelers to volunteer more information about them prior to flying.

ATA says that it if the pilot is successful it expects a second phase would include more of its member airlines.

IATA last month unveiled a mock-up of a risk-based, intelligence-driven Checkpoint of the Future concept that it believes one day will allow airline passengers to keep walking through a checkpoint as they are being screened for explosives and other threats. The point of the intelligence-driven checkpoint is to look for bad people, not just bad things, which is why pre-screening passengers based on information they voluntarily submit is expected to enable TSA to better understand who poses less of a security risk and therefore would need less screening.

One aviation security expert who favors risk-based screening tells TR2 that his concern with TSA’s plans at they are being put forward is that risk-based also means “enhanced screening” of passengers who are deemed to present a higher risk.

“There is no mention by TSA of simultaneously sorting elevated risk passengers and subjecting them to much more rigorous inspection that has a better chance of finding…IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” says the expert. “Until TSA defines different standards for each risk group it is very hard to finalize a suite of technologies that will work.”