Summary of TSA's Monthly Conference Call for Airport Stakeholders
November 2, 2023
On November 2, TSA held its monthly conference call for airport stakeholders. The conference call was led by Alan Paterno, TSA's Industry Engagement Manager for Airports in the office of Policy, Plans and Engagement (PPE).
In his introductory remarks, Paterno announced that Vera Adams, Executive Director of the Aviation Division in TSA's PPE, will be retiring at the end of the year. Adams has served as the Executive Director for close to 8 years. Previously, Adams was a Federal Security Director, a Port Director with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and worked for the Department of Treasury. Adams is retiring with close to 35 years of service in the federal government. Adams thanked airports and others on the call for their support and partnership throughout her career.
Paterno also took a moment to clarify certain comments on last month's call regarding the Quarterly Airport Security Review (QASR), which again is a joint effort between TSA, AAAE, ACI-NA, and select airport representatives to review existing regulatory requirements to discuss if they need to be modified, rescinded or updated. Paterno stressed that the QASR is not a decision-making body but does provide a venue for industry to offer its perspective, feedback, and potential solutions for TSA's consideration. TSA continues to engage the group to solicit feedback and plans to return to in-person meetings in 2024 to foster more collaborative sessions with a greater opportunity for additional back and forth discussion on various iterations of proposed and revised policy.
TSA also reported that the agency received comments from 11 airports and 2 associations on the proposed ASP amendment (TSA-PNA-23-01) regarding Law Enforcement Officer Procedures. Comments were due on October 31. TSA will be reviewing and adjudicating the comments and will reach out to submitters with any questions or needed clarification.
TSA Cares/Passenger Experience Survey
TSA Executive Director for Traveler Engagement Jose Bonilla provided an overview of the TSA Cares program, which offers help to travelers who may need additional assistance with screening. The TSA Cares programs is operationalized at airports through Passenger Support Specialists who are Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) that receive additional training focused on TSA's screening procedures for passengers that cannot complete the screening process on their own, such as passengers with disabilities, traveling in wheelchairs or struggling with sensory issues.
Use of the TSA Cares program has grown 130 percent over the last three years. At the same time, there has been a correlated decrease in customer complaints. TSA plans to work with airports and air carriers to continue to enhance the program in 2024. TSA also plans to highlight the program in its messaging to passengers in advance of the busy winter holiday travel season.
Relatedly, during the first two weeks of May, TSA conducted its second Passenger Experience Survey at 16 airports across the nation, collecting over 13,000 responses. The goal of the survey was to gather immediate, comprehensive, reliable and shareable customer experience data. This survey was one of TSA's key initiatives in response to Executive Order 14058 on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. The survey was collected at the end of the checkpoint to focus specifically on the checkpoint experience and what TSA can control in the airport environment.
According to TSA, the results of the survey are overwhelmingly positive, emphasizing the outstanding performance of the screening workforce and TSA's commitment to providing excellent customer service in performing its security mission. The data revealed the following:
· 95% of passengers surveyed reported TSOs they interacted with were professional and treated them with respect during the screening process on the day they took the survey.
· 94% of participants reported confidence in the ability of TSOs to keep air travel safe.
· 93% overall Customer Satisfaction score with 75-85% considered a good score.
· 91% believed their wait times to be reasonable with 89% perceiving they waited less than 15 minutes at the checkpoint.
· 78% reported experiencing no challenges at the checkpoint.
When publicly released, the full results of the survey will be made available on performance.gov/cx.
I-STEP and EXIS Overview
The Intermodal Security Training and Exercise Program, also known as I-STEP, provides exercise, training, and security planning tools and services to the transportation sector.
I-STEP is a federal exercise program focused on security in the nation's transportation sector. Its mission is to enhance security and reduce risk across the transportation network. Working in partnership with transportation operators, I-STEP enables security partners to continuously improve the risk posture in the nation's transportation systems. Lessons learned from I-STEP exercises, training events and workshops help shape national transportation security policy.
The Exercise Information System, also known as EXIS, is an online self-help exercise tool that guides industry and government users through the exercise design process. The system provides users with resources to design, document and evaluate exercises for all transportation system owners and operators. It is an information sharing portal that provides a way for TSA and exercise designers to share critical exercise lessons learned.
EXIS also provides best practices and lessons learned from the 30 to 50 I-STEP exercises performed across the country per year. TSA shared the EXIS best practices related to airport active shooter threats identified in I-STEP exercises conducted over the past five years. The next I-STEP exercise is scheduled with A4A and its member carriers in November; AAAE will also participate. TSA encouraged airports to use I-STEP and EXIS as a resource when planning their annual tabletop exercises.
Acceptable Identification at the Checkpoint
Chang Ellison, from TSA's Requirements and Capabilities Analysis (RCA) Identification Management division, reported on TSA's efforts to refine the list of acceptable identification for use at the checkpoint. The effort was initiated as part of one of the key objectives of TSA's Identity Management Roadmap to strengthen the agency's identification authentication and verification capabilities. An internal group reviewed the list of acceptable documents in the context of the Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) capabilities, future CAT-2 capabilities, upcoming REAL ID enforcement in May 2025 and NIST and ISO standards related to identification verification, particularly regarding digital IDs. TSA created a framework for determining if certain identification can be accepted at the checkpoint, looking at four key components: identity proofing and enrollment; CAT capability to read the identification document; minimum data elements on the identification; and, minimum physical security features to prevent counterfeiting and fraud.
As a result, TSA leadership is reviewing a policy memo, which once approved, will not allow airport or air carrier issued identification to be used at the checkpoint for passenger travel. Airport and air carrier badge holders can still use their badges to execute their job duties, even when going through the checkpoint. However, if an airport or air carrier badge holder is ticketed on a commercial flight, the individual must use a different form of identification, such as a REAL ID, a state driver's license, or a passport. TSA expects to finalize and implement this policy in early 2024 after coordinating with the CAT program, checkpoint procedures, training and development and TSA public affairs.
On a related note, TSA shares a monthly update on the deployment of CAT and CAT-2 machines. The latest update can be found here.
Safe Skies Update
Jessica Grizzle from Safe Skies provided the following update:
· PARAS 0049 Creating and Maintaining a Strong Security Culture at Airports is now available for free download here. This guidebook is a comprehensive resource of information and strategies to help airports build and maintain a strong security culture. Areas of focus include creating a security culture, community engagement and information sharing, workforce management, and assessing security culture. Options and strategies are summarized for each topic and relevant case studies are included.
· PARAS 0051 Guidance for Airport Security Exercises is now available for free download here. This guidebook's approach to developing a comprehensive airport security exercise program includes user-friendly, ready-to-use templates for planning, executing, evaluating, and documenting exercises. The guidance focuses primarily on tabletop exercises, drills, and functional exercises; however, the methods described can be used to develop other exercise types or to integrate security aspects into emergency exercises.
· PARAS 0045 Guidance for Biometric Technology at Airports is under final review and will be available later this month.
· Work for PARAS 0059 Enhanced Scheduling Tool for Aviation Worker Screening is ongoing. The project is on track to have a tool available for airport review and potential use by the end of December.
· To continue assisting airports with compliance with the National Amendment on Aviation Worker Screening, PARAS 0060 Strategies for Developing an Aviation Worker Screening Program was recently approved as a fast tracked project. The initial project objective is to create a comprehensive resource of information and guidance to assist airports in establishing their aviation worker screening program. Project work will begin in January.
· The Safe Skies Oversight Committee will meet November 29 to review 11 submitted Problem Statements and select projects for funding. Selected projects and a solicitation for project panel members will be announced soon after.
