Key West and Florida Keys Marathon Airports Awarded Private Screening Contract Under Screening Partnership Program
May 24, 2007
Media Contact: Carrie Harmon
(303) 204-2134
WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today announced the selection of Raytheon Technical Services of Reston, Va., as the private screening contractor for Key West International and Florida Keys Marathon airports under the Screening Partnership Program (SPP). Raytheon will team with McNeil Security Inc. of Springfield, Va., for this contract.
"We look forward to working with Raytheon at both airports," said Tim Lewis, federal security director (FSD) for the Key West and Marathon airports, as well as for Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. "We believe this will be an effective public-private partnership, with Raytheon providing screening services and TSA maintaining oversight to ensure all federal security standards are met."
Key West and Marathon applied to the SPP program last fall. The application included a joint request for private screening services. Key West requested to transition from federal to private screening, and Marathon asked to receive screening services to accommodate the start of commercial airline service in February 2007.
This competitively awarded contract is for security screening services for both passenger checkpoint and checked baggage operations. The total contract award value, including options, is approximately $16.3 million. The total period of performance is four years, four months, which will begin on May 24, 2007 and end on September 30, 2011 (if all options are exercised). Under SPP, the FSD will remain responsible for overseeing TSA security standards and contractor performance.
This is the first contract awarded at an SPP airport using a streamlined acquisition process implemented by TSA in 2006, which allows any interested company to respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP). Previously, contractors had to apply and be accepted as a "Qualified Vendor" in order to compete for a SPP contract.
SPP is designed to meet the requirement for the "opt-out" program established in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA) of 2001. Beginning in 2002, ATSA required TSA to conduct an SPP pilot program at five airports (known as the "PP5") to evaluate the performance of private screeners relative to federal screeners. When the pilot program ended in November 2004, airport operators with federal screening services could apply to SPP.
To date, all the original PP5 airports [San Francisco International; Kansas City (Mo.) International; Greater Rochester (N.Y.) International; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; and Tupelo (Miss.) Regional] and Joe Foss Field in Sioux Falls, S.D., have transitioned to SPP. TSA also signed a three-party contract with US Helicopter Corporation and McNeil Security Inc. under SPP that established screening operations to support airport shuttle services at the East 34th Street Heliport in Manhattan. In addition, an SPP contract award at the Charles Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in California is expected by this summer.
For more information about TSA, please visit www.TSA.gov
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