As reported in The New York Times, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is preparing to assume responsibility (currently assigned to airlines) for checking passengers’ names against terrorist watch lists, and is advising travelers to book airline tickets using their full name as it appears on their driver’s license or passport. Also, later this summer the TSA will begin requiring airlines to ask passengers for their birth date and gender during the ticketing process. Airlines will send this information to the TSA with the intent of making the watch list matching process more accurate.

The TSA has set August 15, 2009 as the target date for the airlines to begin asking for each passenger’s full name, gender and date of birth, and has begun publicizing the program, called Secure Flight. However, because many airlines’ reservation systems are not yet prepared to accept this additional information, the TSA has acknowledged that it will need to phase in the program as the airlines update their systems. For now, airlines are advising passengers not to worry if there is no field for entering their middle name, gender or date of birth when purchasing a ticket.