Secure Flight Overview

On October 28, 2008 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the final rule for a program called Secure Flight.  The purpose of Secure Flight is to enhance the current security of domestic and international air travel through the use of improved government watch list matching.

The Secure Flight program will become effective in two phases:

• Phase 1 - Includes flights between two domestic points within the United States.
• Phase 2 - Includes flights overflying the continental United States, covered flights to/from the United States, and all other flights (such as international point-to-point flights) operated by U.S. aircraft operators not included in first phase

Upon full implementation of the Secure Flight program, each passenger will be required to provide the following information:

• Passengers Full Name (as shown on state or government issued identification documents such as a State ID Card, Drivers License or Passport).
• Date of Birth
• Gender
• Redress Number (if available)
• Known Traveler Number (program has not yet been defined)

In order to issue a boarding pass, Airlines must transmit the aforementioned data to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) 72 hours prior to flight departure for vetting.  In the event a reservation is created within 72 hour of departure, traveler information must be provided immediately.

Airline operators will not be able to print boarding passes for passengers until the Secure Flight program completes the comparison of passenger information. 

Additionally, web site booking engines and kiosks must display a privacy notice indicating that the information being obtained is a requirement of the Transportation Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for purposes of watch list screening. 

Industry Agreed Direction

In mid January Airlines and Global Distribution Systems (GDS's) met at the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) headquarters to discuss and develop a messaging standard for Secure Flight.   It was unanimously agreed that the industry should reuse existing Special Service Request (SSR) DOCS and DOCO to accommodate the transmission of Secure Flight information between members with an effective date of May 1, 2009. 

Due to the urgency of having common standards in place, IATA has forwarded this agreed proposal to Reservation Committee Members for a mail vote for approval.  Results are due back week of February 26, 2009 but Sabre fully expects this to be approved with an industry effective date of May 1st. 

NEW FORMATS 

A)        Input Examples:  Full Name, Date of Birth, Gender 

3DOCS/DB/13MAR03/M/JONES/ANDREW/DAVID-2.1 (assumes all segments)

4DOCS/DB/13MAR03/M/JONES/ANDREW/DAVID-2.1 (assumes all segments) 

B)      Redress Number 

3DOCO//R/123456789-2.1 (assumes all segments)

4DOCO//R/123456789-2.1 (assumes all segments) 

C)      Known Traveler Number* 

3DOCO//K/123456789-2.1 (assumes all segments)

4DOCO//K/123456789-2.1 (assumes all segments) *Note that this program has not yet been defined by the government.  This format has been reserved and will be made available once the Known Traveler program goes into effect.  

Sabre Implementation Timeline 

Phase I - Target Implementation May 01, 2009:  Sabre will enable the 3DOCS, 3DOCO, 4DOCS and 4DOCO to collect and enter the information into the reservation and transmit Secure Flight information to the respective airline(s), see Requirements Section 1.0 and 2.0 for the formats. Also included will be the new display entries to view this information, see Requirements Section 3 for the formats. 

Phase II - Target Implementation August 01, 2009:  The remaining functionality, i.e., Star Enhancement, Optional End Transaction Edit, etc., is currently under review with a tentative implementation date of 01Aug 2009.