Airport Screeners' New Guard

Private Security Firms Want to Replace Government in 2005

After suffering sharp ridicule from the public and near extermination by the federal government more than two years ago, the airline screening industry is seeking a comeback at U.S. airports.

The federal law passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that banned private companies from airports allows them to return by 2005 if they are approved by the government. The provision has led a few security firms -- many of them new to the business -- to begin pitching themselves to undecided airports as a class above the old guard of airport screening companies such as Argenbright Security Inc., which took the brunt of criticism after 9/11.

"The business prior to 9/11 didn't have the best reputation," said Nancy Montgomery, vice president of strategic accounts at Barton Protective Services Inc., a company that employs security guards at office buildings and would like to get into the airport security business. "It's a very different program now."

Three companies have an advantage in the new industry because they are already operating security checkpoints at the San Francisco, Kansas City, Mo., Rochester, N.Y., and Tupelo, Miss., airports, which are participating in a $127 million pilot project. One of the companies, FirstLine Transportation Security Inc., worked in airline security before 2001 and has changed its name. Another, McNeil Technologies Inc., based in Springfield, is a minority-owned firm that, like many new contenders, has traditionally provided security services for government agencies.

Some new entrants already work in related businesses. Gate Safe Inc., an Atlanta company seeking checkpoint security contracts, screens airline food and other supplies before they are loaded onto planes. "It's a natural extension of the way that we've grown our business," said Larry P. White, director of marketing and sales at Gate Safe.

Airports also can get into the business by forming a subsidiary company to perform security screening, as the Jackson Hole Airport Authority has been doing through a test program with the government at its Wyoming airport.

Excluded from the business are many of the companies, including Huntleigh USA Corp., Wackenhut Corp. and Argenbright -- now known as Cognisa Security Inc. -- that employed a majority of the screeners three years ago. Those companies are units of larger firms based overseas and are now prohibited under federal law from working at security checkpoints. "The overwhelming majority of Huntleigh's business has been wiped out," said company spokesman Robert H. Bork Jr. "What little they have is not profitable."

At least one firm, Wackenhut, is lobbying to be let back in to airport screening.

Department of Homeland Security officials estimate that as many as 25 percent of the nation's 429 airports may eventually sign on with the private security firms. For now, airports say they are interested in the option but are hesitant to decide until the government clarifies how much liability they will take on in the event that a company's security screener or the airport is blamed for another terrorist attack. Officials at Baltimore Washington International, Dulles International and Reagan National airports say they are undecided.

"It's premature to make any conclusions," said James E. Bennett, chief executive of Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Dulles and National. "We will certainly review the criteria and see if it is something we feel would enhance the effectiveness and efficiency at our airports."