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Airport Credentialing Efficiency Toolkit: The JW Group, Inc. Completes the PARAS 0036 Research

• Mar 31, 2022

Airport Credentialing Offices (COs) perform numerous operations and face a variety of challenges. Factors such as credentialing applicant demand, staffing, airport size, Authorized Signatory knowledge, existing procedures, level of technology adaptation, and continuous Federal mandates can have an impact on operational efficiency and staff utilization. Due to these evolving challenges, Safe Skies’ Program for Applied Research in Airport Security (PARAS) commissioned a research program in late 2020 for the development of an Airport Credentialing Toolkit to be used by the industry to include strategies, best practices, and recommendations to assist COs in becoming more operationally efficient. This research program is managed by Safe Skies and funded by the FAA.

The JW Group, Inc., with the guidance of the PARAS Program Manager and the PARAS 0036 Project Panel’s airport security subject matter experts, conducted the research and the development of the Toolkit.  Over 26 airports participated in the research project. Additionally, six airport use cases are included in the report where airports faced specific challenges and describes how they overcame these challenges. The report is now available on the Safe Skies website ( Reports | Safe Skies (sskies.org) ).

Toolkit Overview

Processes, procedures, and forms which an airport utilizes for its credentialing operations can vary widely within the industry. As such the data collection and research efforts involved obtaining inputs from over twenty-six large, medium, and small hub airports which were evenly distributed. Based on the data collection and interviews conducted, findings were established, and the research team developed recommendations which are described in the Toolkit. The recommendations include strategies, best practices, forms, templates, and associated considerations to assist airports in assessing their credentialing processes and implementing changes to improve their level of efficiency. The recommendations, where applicable, attempt to address any hub size-specific related attribute.

The Toolkit is presented with thirteen challenge areas which include, for example, staffing limitation and job duty assignments, credentialing office location and layout, appointments and scheduling, authorized signatory responsibilities, leveraging available technologies, etc. For each challenge area an overview, summary of findings, and recommendations are presented. Additionally, The JW Group, Inc., as part of the Toolkit, developed two software tools to assist an airport in performing a self-assessment of its existing credentialing operations and for forecasting staffing requirements.