The Transportation Security Administration on Thursday said it has awarded contract to three companies to provide enrollment services for its PreCheck trusted traveler program in an effort to expand outreach to potential users of the program.
The awards were made to Alclear LLC, Telos Identity Management Solutions, and France-based IDEMIA’s U.S. business, which is the sole incumbent for the work.
Alclear provides the CLEAR service at a number of U.S. airports and other venues, providing biometric and biographic-based vetting to help expedite members to the front of security lines. Telos provides a wide range of services and solutions, including cyber security, enterprise security, and identity management. The company provides TSA-approved background check services for airport workers at a number of U.S. airports.
IDEMIA offers PreCheck enrollment under the IdentGO brand.
Expansion of the enrollment services program was directed by Congress in late 2018 under the TSA Modernization Act, which was included in a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration. The new law requires at least two private sector entities to be used to provide PreCheck enrollment services to travelers that voluntarily apply for the services.
Enrollment operations with the new vendors are expected to begin later this year once TSA. The agency still needs to ensure the companies’ systems meet cyber security requirements before customers can begin enrolling.
“We are pleased that travelers will have additional TSA PreCheck enrollment options with this latest contract award,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. “We expect to see the newly added TSA PreCheck vendors to begin operations by late 2020.”
The current price for PreCheck is $85 for applicants but the new vendors will be allowed to choose their own pricing although the agency will charge the vendors the same, TSA said. Enrollment will remain valid for five years.
In return for submitting select biographic and biometric data, PreCheck members receive expedited security benefits at TSA checkpoints, typically including a separate screening lane, not having to remove their shoes, laptops and liquids, and passing through a walk-through metal detector rather than a body scanner.
TSA said that in 2019 94 percent of PreCheck passengers waited less than five minutes to go through airport security checkpoints. The service is available at more than 200 U.S. airports with 73 airlines.