CATSA announces new contracts for airport screening services

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) has announced that Paladin Airport Security Services and GardaWorld Security Screening have both received five-year contracts for security screening services across Canadian airports.

Paladin will be responsible for Pacific and Prairie regions with GardaWorld handling Central and Eastern regions. The Paladin contract is worth an estimated $2.05 billion and the GardaWorld contract approximately $2.7 billion. The contracts were awarded following a 10-month competitive process, according to CATSA, and are set to commence April 1, 2024. They are renewable for two additional five-year periods at CATSA’s discretion.

“The new contracts allow us to build on past successes and improve our approach to managing security screening services, including creating more effective and efficient screening operations, while attaining the highest levels of customer service,” said Nada Semaan, president and CEO, CATSA, in a statement.

CATSA was established on April 1, 2002 and is responsible for four mandated activities: passenger pre-board screening; the screening of passengers’ checked baggage for prohibited items; the screening of non-passengers such as CATSA personnel, screening officers, flight and cabin crews, and other airport employees; and restricted area identity card (RAIC) management, which uses iris and fingerprint biometric identifiers to allow non-passengers access to restricted areas.

Correction: This article previously reported that the Paladin contracts were worth a combined $1.1 billion. The story has been updated with the correct value.