Secure Flight conducts uniform prescreening of passenger information against federal government watch lists for domestic and international flights. TSA is taking over this responsibility from aircraft operators who, up until now, have been responsible for checking passengers against government watch lists. Secure Flight passenger watch list matching will eventually apply to all domestic and international passengers traveling on covered aircraft operator flights into, out of, within or over the United States. Secure Flight will also apply to point-to-point international flights operated by U.S.-based aircraft operators.
The initial implementation phase of Secure Flight which began in early 2009 will result in the complete transfer of responsibility for passenger watch list matching to TSA from aircraft operators whose flights operate within the United States. The second phase of Secure Flight will result in the transfer of responsibility for passenger watch list matching to TSA for flights into, out of, and over the United States to TSA.
Under security directives passed after 9/11, airlines have had the responsibility for properly matching their passengers’ names to the No-Fly and Selectee lists provided to them by the Terrorist Screening Center. TSA doesn’t own these watch lists, but is a customer of the Terrorist Screening Center, a component of the FBI that is responsible for maintaining the consolidated database of terrorist watch lists. Because each aircraft operator conducts its own matching process, the system can be very inconsistent. This is why the same passenger will often have trouble obtaining a boarding pass, or be told they are on a watch list, by one airline and not another.
