TSA expands biometric identity checks to airline crews

Airline pilots, flight attendants, and other eligible crew members are beginning to encounter a materially different way of entering airport sterile areas as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) replaces Known Crewmember (KCM) with a new facial comparison program called Crewmember Access Point (CMAP).

The change is more than a technology upgrade. Known Crewmember was created in 2011 as an industry operated system that allowed vetted crewmembers to present an airline ID and KCM barcode at designated access points.

Until now it had been a joint initiative between the Air Line Pilots Association and Airlines for America.

Under CMAP, TSA will assume program administration, use data already supplied by carriers through federal crew listing programs, and photograph crew members at access points for comparison against an image held in federal databases.

TSA says the transition began June 22 and is scheduled to conclude at airport locations by September 30, although KCM is not expected to formally sunset until the end of this year.

The first locations were Washington Reagan, Washington Dulles, and Las Vegas. A second wave began the week of July 5 at airports including San Diego, Honolulu, Salt Lake City, Austin, and Phoenix, with 30 additional airports scheduled for later July conversion dates. Those dates remain subject to change.

CMAP remains voluntary in a formal sense. Crew members must affirmatively consent before their airlines add them to the program, and those who decline may use regular passenger screening to reach the sterile area.

For crew members, the practical choice is between consenting to facial comparison or losing access to the separate expedited lane that KCM provided. A failed biometric match or a random selection for additional screening sends the crewmember to a passenger checkpoint.

The program relies on data that airlines already provide TSA through Master Crew Lists for international operators and Master Personnel Lists for domestic only operators.

These lists contain biographic information while participating crew members must separately complete security threat assessments that include criminal history, immigration, and terrorism checks.

CMAP adds a live photograph at the airport and compares it with a federal image record. The KCM transition notice identifies Customs and Border Protection’s Traveler Verification Service as the comparison system.

TSA describes the change as a cybersecurity and identity verification improvement. Moving the system from Airlines for America to TSA will strengthen protection of crew data and give the agency greater ability to use the information in its aviation security oversight, the agency said.

The practical effect is to bring a longstanding industry facilitated crew credential program into the government’s expanding biometric identity verification infrastructure.

That infrastructure has been under development for more than a year. TSA’s procurement planning called for additional CMAP units using a hardware configuration built around Dell tablets, FLIR cameras, and Kowa lenses, with installation, support, and help desk services.

An April procurement report said TSA sought additional devices to prevent a gap in biometric crew screening as its arrangement with Airlines for America wound down.

TSAis also imposing a new annual charge on participating airlines of $19 for each enrolled crewmember, effective January 1, 2027. TSA says the fee is intended to recover CMAP costs over five years and will be reviewed at least every two years

Carriers that do not pay within 30 days of an invoice may have their crews removed from the program.

The fee is relatively small per person but could create multimillion-dollar annual costs at the largest carriers.

Estimates circulating within the airline trade put American, Delta, United, Southwest Airlines’ combined expense at upwards of $10 million annually, though the actual totals will depend on participation because TSA bills airlines according to enrolled crewmembers, not total workforce size.

There is not yet evidence of an organized union campaign to stop CMAP. AFA-CWA and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) have instead issued member guidance on the rollout, consent process, and alternatives for workers who decline to participate.

APFA says it is monitoring implementation and will continue providing operational updates.

Still, there are early indications of individual resistance. One aviation publication reported July 4 that some flight attendants were declining to consent to biometric participation, although it did not provide enrollment figures or identify a formal union-led opposition effort.

“There are some concerns among flight attendants about the federal government using biometrics to power CMAP,” reported BYOK, a newsletter founded by a veteran international flight attendant.

“With a workforce of more than 47,500 pilots and flight attendants, American Airlines faces a $2.64 million annual fee to allow its aircrew to use CMAP … That is, of course, if all crew members consent to their participation in the program,” BYOK noted.

For now, CMAP’s most immediate test will be operational. TSA must show that facial matching works reliably across a national network of crew access points while preserving the speed that made KCM valuable to airline workers and carriers.

The more consequential question is whether a nominally voluntary program can retain broad participation when opting out means joining the same screening system CMAP was designed to bypass.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  Crewmember Access Point (CMAP)  |  face biometrics  |  identity verification  |  TSA