Air passengers face mandatory fingerprinting

Dan Milmo, transport correspondent
Thursday June 7, 2007
The Guardian

Millions of Britons leaving United States airports face mandatory fingerprinting under new security guidelines.Passengers travelling from the US will have to present their fingers as well as their passports at check-in from the end of next year, according to a senior security official. Virgin Atlantic, whose customers may be forced to endure longer waits in terminals, has vowed to oppose the move.

Michael Jackson, deputy secretary of the US department of homeland security, said the procedure would apply to all passengers and airlines flying out of the US as the country accumulates information on every foreign national travelling through America. “We will need biometric as well as biographical data,” he said.

Under current regulations, EU airlines flying to the US have to supply passenger name records (PNR).

The arrangement is a source of tension, amid anger that American authorities are also seeking access to credit card details and email accounts. European flights have also been forced to turn around mid-air after US authorities barred certain passengers from entering the country, including Yusuf Islam, formerly known as the singer Cat Stevens. Mr Jackson said fingerprinting every passenger would not lead to long queues, even though airlines would have to do the job, and the procedure would be easy to integrate, over time, “into the business model of the industry”.

He said his department was willing to supply the electronic fingerprinting kit to airlines in the initial phase. Speaking at the International Air Transport Association conference in Vancouver, he said some larger airlines would be able to adapt existing check-in kiosks to scan passengers’ index fingers. “We don’t think phase one will be burdensome.”

He said the US would not demand a similar procedure for flights travelling from the UK to the US.

Airlines warned that the process would test passengers’ patience, already stretched by tight security guidelines in US and UK airports. Virgin Atlantic warned that mandatory fingerprinting “does not make sense” and it is lobbying against the proposal. “There is a real danger that it could create longer queues,” said Paul Charles, director of communications at Virgin. “Our check-in staff are not security or immigration officials and that’s not their role.”

Mr Jackson added that the most “catastrophic” threat to the airline industry was a rocket-propelled grenade attack similar to the one that nearly downed an Israeli airliner in Kenya five years ago. He said another attack on the scale of September 11 2001 was inevitable. “It is not clear whether it could be in aviation … but it would be silly not to understand that we will have many more September 11s. It is a long-term struggle.”

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