• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

San Francisco Airport to Drop Private Screeners

Posted on: Tuesday, 30 August 2005, 06:00 CDT

San Francisco International Airport plans to stop using a private company to handle checkpoint security, a decision likely to deal a blow to efforts to privatize screening at the nation's airports.

The airport is the largest in a pilot program that is testing whether private companies can do a better job than federal screeners, who now handle airport security.

But San Francisco says it will drop its screening company in May because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would not protect it from lawsuits that might arise from a terrorist incident.

The decision could hinder some lawmakers' efforts to replace federal screeners with private ones, who they say would be more efficient.

"I don't think you're going to see any large airports or even medium airports interested in being in this program if they don't have this basic (lawsuit) protection," San Francisco airport director John Martin said. The airport will have federal screeners starting in May.

TSA acting Deputy Administrator Thomas Blank said the government won't offer blanket protection from lawsuits. He said such protection would be costly because it would increase insurance premiums paid by private security companies. The government ultimately would bear those higher costs because it pays the operating costs of private contractors.

Blank said he wasn't sure if other airports would shy away from private companies due to liability. "I wouldn't necessarily assume other airports would be guided by San Francisco's decision," he said.

San Francisco has been held up as a model for how private companies can operate with better flexibility to shorten security lines. Since November 2002, San Francisco's 1,120 screeners have been hired, trained, scheduled and paid by Covenant Aviation Security under a $79 million contract with the TSA, which dictates screener training, security procedures and minimum salaries.

The airport recently said that opting for private screeners could expose it to a potential lawsuit if terrorists boarded an airplane in San Francisco.

The four other airports in the 3-year-old pilot program have expressed no concern about liability and plan to continue using private companies. Those airports are in Kansas City, Mo.; Rochester, N.Y.; Tupelo, Miss.; and Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Only Sioux Falls, S.D., and Elko, Nev., have applied to use private screeners since the TSA invited applications last fall. Sioux Falls was approved last month and Elko is pending.

Martin, the airport director, said San Francisco might reconsider its decision if it gets lawsuit protection by January. He said he was "holding out some hope" that Congress would enact a law protecting airports.

Source: USA TODAY

More News in this Category