Reply #21: New Rules from Tuesday, 4 October 2005 [View All]

[muriel_volestrangler]

USA requires passenger details from international airlines

Effective today airlines, cruise ships, and other vessels operating on international routes to or from the USA are required to provide the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division of the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS), electronically, in a standard format, with detailed information on all passengers and crew members, including information well beyond anything contained in their passports or travel documents:

Each electronic arrival or departure manifest must contain certain information for all passengers or crew members of air and vessel carriers. Air carriers must provide the following information: (a) Complete name; (b) date of birth; ( c ) citizenship (country of document issuance); (d) gender; (e) passport number and country of issuance, if a passport is required; (f) country of residence; (g) United States visa number, date, and place of issuance (arrivals only); (h) alien registration number; (i) United States address while in the United States; (j) International Air Transport Association (IATA) arrival port code; (k) IATA departure port code; (l) flight number, date of flight arrival, date of flight departure; (m) airline carrier code; (n) document type (e.g., passport; visa; alien registration); (o) date of document expiration; and (p) a unique passenger identifier, or reservation number or Passenger Name Record (PNR) locator number.

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/000840.html

So if they know your passport number before you queue up at the airport, it means less queues there. They are also meant to check passenger names against lists they have of people who aren't allowed to fly, and in the past have chucked people off just because of a coincidence of names. So, in theory, having your passport number as well as name ought to help innocent people. It can, however, feel authoritarian. But, for transatlantic travel, we're at the mercy of the authorities - you can hardly say "I'm sailing there instead".