What's at Issue
A standardized process does not exist for the screening and approval of airport employees. Each airport authority is permitted to design and implement its own procedures for approving employees, with no required coordination between airports. Many airline services providers service commercial airline aircraft at a large number of airports across the country.

Why It's Important
America's airline services providers continue to encounter inefficiencies for airport employees seeking to obtain proper identification and clearance for access to the secure area of commercial airports. Recent incidents over the last year at major commercial airports in the U.S. highlight the need for a uniform employee screening and identification process. Elimination of the endless bureaucracy and unnecessary redundancy associated with applying for and obtaining the appropriate identification card in order to work on an airport operating area is vital.

The lack of standardization between airports for issuing secure credentials continues to increase the administrative costs for these service providers to hire and train new employees. These costs come in a variety of forms, from the direct costs in submitting information for Criminal History Records Checks to the indirect costs incurred in lost productivity while these employees wait an excessive amount of time for clearance. These rising costs will be further exacerbated as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) implements much-needed screening improvements to strengthen the security of airport operating areas.

Furthermore, there is no process in place that allows employees approved at one airport to access secure areas at another airport. In many cases, the senior management of airline services providers is required to endure a burdensome process when visiting individual facilities at an airport, wasting time and money for both the service provider and the airport.

For example, badging inconsistencies at Boston's Logan International Airport include the airport authority initiating a fee for temporary badges because of the extended delays in processing permanent badges. These temporary badges cost $5 per day, and it can take 2-4 weeks for the airport authority to process an employee. One airline service company has reported that although a temporary week-long badge (free-of-charge) is available, the airport authority is reluctant to issue them, thereby forcing the company to purchase temporary badges.

What to do
Contact your Members of Congress in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to make them aware of the need to standardize the screening and approval of airport employees seeking to obtain proper identification and clearance for access to secure areas of commercial airports. In addition, encourage Members of Congress to write to the TSA and request that the agency streamline and expedite the processing of employee access badges within seven business days after receipt of the results of a fingerprint-based criminal history records check (CHRC).

Sample letter to Members of Congress

Sample letter for Members of Congress to send to the TSA.

NATA Position
Airline services providers are in unanimous agreement that additional measures should be taken to increase the security of our nation's airports, both in the terminal and on the tarmac. It is imperative that the TSA implement a comprehensive, national policy governing the screening and credentialing of airport employees to complement these initiatives. A streamlined process for screening and badging airport employees will benefit all stakeholders in the aviation industry, and will ultimately move us closer to our goal of a seamless airport security operation.

How to Contact Your Members of Congress
To identify and obtain contact information for your Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, go to http://www.house.gov, and type in your ZIP code in the "Find Your Representative" box at the top of the page. You can also visit http://www.senate.gov to obtain the contact information for your two U.S. Senators.

If you wish to speak to a staff member for your elected officials, you can call the office or the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-2131 and ask the operator to connect you to the appropriate office. Upon being connected to these offices, ask to speak to the staff member who handles homeland security issues.

Please be sure to forward a copy of your correspondence to Kristen Moore, NATA's Director of Legislative Affairs, via email, kmoore@nata.aero, or fax, (703) 845-8176.

Staff Contact:

Kristen Moore
Director, Legislative Affairs
NATA
kmoore@nata.aero

For general press inquiries, contact Shannon Chambers at 703-298-1347 or schambers@nata.aero. 

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has been the voice of aviation business for more than 80 years. Representing nearly 3,700 aviation businesses, NATA’s member companies provide a broad range of services to general aviation, the airlines and the military and NATA serves as the public policy group representing the interests of aviation businesses before Congress and the federal agencies.