22
SECURITY    
July | August 2026      AirportImprovement.com
PGD | SFO
At first glance, Punta Gorda 
Airport (PGD) in Florida and San 
Francisco International Airport 
(SFO) in California are very different.
The former is a fast-growing regional 
airport shaped by leisure travel and 
fluctuating flight schedules that served 
about 2.3 million passengers last year. 
The latter is a long-standing global 
gateway; a Category X airport that moved 
54.5 million passengers through its 
complex, interconnected terminal system 
last year. 
Yet both rely on the same model for 
passenger and baggage screening: TSA’s 
Screening Partnership Program (SPP), 
which allows airports to use private 
contractors operating under federal 
oversight to manage security checkpoints. 
While the two airports have vastly 
different operations, each has found that 
the program provides greater flexibility 
than the traditional TSA model. Together, 
they show the wide range of application 
for privatized screening. 
At PGD, the decision to apply for 
the alternative program was driven by 
necessity.
Rapid increases in passenger volume, 
fueled by a contract with Allegiant Airlines 
that grew traffic by over 40%, pushed 
the airport’s federally managed screening 
model beyond its limits. 
“It was difficult 
for the TSA to staff 
screening lines for 
sporadic service,” 
explains PGD Chief 
Operating Officer 
Ray Laroche, who 
previously worked at 
the federal agency 
before joining the airport more than 12 
years ago.   
Laroche and other airport executives 
were particularly frustrated that TSA would 
close the checkpoint at a pre-determined 
time, even if flights were still scheduled to 
depart.
“Even when departing flights were 
delayed, the TSA would shut down our 
security checkpoint on their schedule 
with little communication with the airport,” 
he recalls. This meant that travelers 
who postponed going through security 
missed their flights, and those who arrived 
early waited inside the holdroom where 
concessions were limited. 
Exasperated by these negative effects 
on the passenger experience, Laroche 
explored the topic of privatized screening 
at an industry conference and learned that 
private contractors will leave a skeleton 
RAY LAROCHE
How Privatized Screening is Reshaping 
Security at Select U.S. Airports
BY RONNIE WENDT

View this content as a flipbook by clicking here.