Good evening. This is Lee Moak with an update to ALPA’s Executive Council, Executive Board, and Board of Directors. Today is Thursday, March 31.

The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), and the Air Transport Association (ATA) received approval from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for nationwide implementation of a crewmember screening system. The system, jointly sponsored by ALPA and ATA, will tie airline employee databases together in a seamless way, enable TSA security officers to positively verify identity and employment status of crewmembers, and get our members out of the passenger screening lines. Click here to read a draft of the press release.

As you know, ALPA has long advocated a threat-based approach to aviation security that focuses limited screening resources on individuals about whom little or nothing is known while accurately identifying trusted travelers such as airline pilots and allowing them to be screened appropriately.
In 2007, ALPA proposed to TSA the first version of an alternate screening method called the Crew Personnel Advanced Screening System (CrewPASS). CrewPASS has been used successfully at three East Coast airports for almost three years. The enhanced process leverages current technology to provide for an effective and cost-efficient solution.

I look forward to the full national deployment of this screening program at the earliest possible date. As professional airline pilots, we have been through employment checks; we have been fingerprinted; we have been through criminal background checks. We are the most highly screened employees in the aviation industry. Furthermore, we are on the frontlines of our nation’s aviation security effort, not a threat to it.

Any TSA-regulated U.S. airline that wishes to connect to the ALPA/ATA system will be able to do so, and any airline pilot employed by one of those carriers will be able to participate in the program.

Testing is projected to begin at the following airports: Chicago O’Hare, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Boston Logan, Miami International, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Dulles International, and Seattle-Tacoma. The tests will run for approximately 90 days and if successful will expand to additional U.S. airports.

Implementation of this system is the culmination of ongoing discussions precipitated by an earlier announcement by TSA to modify checkpoint screening procedures for crewmembers while an identity verification system was being developed.