Travel agents will request more personal details from passengers
CYPRUS Airways (CY) has started collecting personal details from passengers travelling to the UK under Britain’s plans to seek Advanced Passenger Information (API) lists ahead of flights.
The advance information includes date of birth, nationality, passport number and expiry date, where the passport was issued and country of residence. The scheme is similar to the one which has been imposed by the US.
CY has already asked travel agents to collect the information from passengers when they book their tickets, but only for UK flights.
The Association of Cyprus Travel Agents (ACTA), which is complying with the request, said yesterday it had received a circular from CY at the end of August.
“The circular said that the airline was legally required to collect the information for all flights departing to the UK,” said ACTA’s Thasos Katsourides.
CY spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou confirmed that the airline had been collecting the information at the request of the British government. He said under the new system, if an airline carries a passenger that is later declined entry to the UK because he or she has not been screened in advance, the carrier could be fined.
“If we don’t do it, the company could have to pay as much as £10,000 for each one of those passengers,” said Kyriacou.
British Airways in Nicosia said yesterday it was not yet collecting the advance passenger information.
“It is a project under evaluation,” the airline said in a brief written statement. “However it is something that will happen in the future.”
Previously, travellers did not need to provide passport details to buy a ticket although the information contained in the passport was handed over at check-in.
The security problem with this method was that by the time the information reached UK authorities it would not be possible to screen them in advance of the flight.
With the new system, those deemed a security threat to Britain would not be allowed to board the plane in the first place. “Persons of interest” however will be allowed to board and targeted for ‘further action’ at the UK end.
A spokesman at the British High Commission said the introduction of the API was likely part of the UK’s e-borders programme that will be fully in place by 2014.
He said as far as he was aware Britain had not specifically asked Cyprus Airways to go forward with the API at this stage, and it was possible the airline itself decided to have it in place.
According to reports from the UK, by December 2009, API will be tracking 60 per cent of all passengers with the aim that by December 2010, some 95 per cent of people entering and leaving the UK will be monitored. Full coverage will be in place by 2014.
