By Calvin Biesecker
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) last month awarded Accenture [ACN] a potential $55.9 million contract to help the agency take on passenger watch list matching currently being done by commercial aircraft operators.
Under the Implementation and Business Operations contract, Accenture will initially help TSA’s Secure Flight program connect and operate with domestic airlines for the switchover of the watch list matching. Eventually, Secure Flight will connect with international airlines, as well as general aviation and others in the future.
TSA says the initial task order is worth about $6.5 million. Accenture’s contract has a base year and four option years.
In addition to establishing that connectivity between the airlines and TSA, Accenture will also review airline data submission performance to ensure that Secure Flight receives all passenger data from airline operators for watch list matching. The company will also measure program performance to improve Secure Flight. Training will also be covered under the contract.
By taking over responsibility for passenger watch list matching, TSA hopes to improve performance. The current practice of airlines being responsible for the matching against a United States government watch list has been criticized by some in Congress for consistently misidentifying innocent U.S. citizens as persons on the watch list.
Secure Flight is expected to roll out in January.
TSA also awarded a potential $20.3 million small-business contract to Professional Solutions, LLC, to maintain a resolution call center to support Secure Flight.
The call center will “perform advanced threat assessments of travelers scheduled to fly, and to resolve related, open traveler assessment issues at check-in,” the contract notice says. Agents at the call center will take calls from airline agents when travelers are unable to print a boarding pass at check-in, coordinate the resolution and direct the airline agent to proceed accordingly, TSA says.