[R-G] Washington demands passenger lists for flights going south

[Anthony Fenton]

POSTED AT 1:05 AM EST     Thursday, October 11
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U.S. demands passenger lists for sun flights
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM. 
20071011.airspace11/front/Front/frontBN/rbc-front


By BRENT JANG
 From Thursday's Globe and Mail

The U.S. government has angered Canada's airlines with a proposal to  
order them to hand over personal information about passengers who  
take flights that go south over U.S. airspace en route to sunny  
destinations.

Although the planes wouldn't take off from or land on American soil,  
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is proposing that Canadian  
carriers send passenger manifests up to 72 hours in advance of  
departures to popular winter escapes such as Mexico and the Caribbean.

Under the U.S. Secure Flight program, there would be the same  
requirement to transmit data on northbound return flights from  
foreign holiday destinations.

The broader goal is to “prevent certain known or suspected terrorists  
from boarding aircraft where they may jeopardize the lives of  
passengers and others,” Homeland Security's Transportation Security  
Agency said in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

The deadline to file comments on the proposal is Oct. 22, and the Air  
Transport Association of Canada is gearing up to voice its outrage on  
behalf of Canadian airlines.

“We're already vetting our passengers against the Canadian no-fly  
list,” ATAC policy vice-president Fred Gaspar said yesterday in an  
interview.

“If you happen to go through some part of U.S. airspace, the U.S. may  
end up intercepting your plane and forcing you to land. That's a  
scenario that we don't want to go through.”

This is the TSA's latest effort to toughen passenger screening. It  
introduced Secure Flight plans in 2004, but suspended their  
development early last year amid widespread criticisms from privacy  
advocates.

Mr. Gaspar said ATAC officials thought Canadian carriers had managed  
to escape the widening net of the TSA, so they were shocked to  
recently discover the proposed changes, after combing through a 37- 
page document in the U.S. government's Federal Register.

“Our position is that it just does not make sense in light of the  
fact that Canada has its own no-fly list, which was developed very  
closely and in co-operation with U.S authorities,” he said.

The U.S. plan will be a major headache for Canadian airlines and tour  
operators because they will need to assign staff to assemble the  
data, and also ensure their software is compatible with the U.S.  
electronic acceptance systems.

“There are also privacy concerns,” Mr. Gaspar said. “This is a data- 
fishing expedition by a third-party government. What makes this  
problematic is that you're heading to another country and you're not  
trying to get into the U.S. What's the point of this co-operative  
approach if our list isn't deemed to be good enough for the United  
States? They're using a hammer to swat a fly.”

Canadian airlines would be required to turn over the full name of  
passengers as it appears on passports, date of birth, gender and, if  
applicable, the so-called “known traveller number” – a unique number  
assigned to travellers that the U.S. government has previously deemed  
do not pose a security threat. Over and above that information, the  
TSA will encourage Canadian carriers to send other data, if  
available, including a passenger's itinerary with the departure  
airport code, airline, departure time, arrival time and arrival  
airport code.

The TSA proposal would cover flights operating between two  
international points that go over the airspace of the lower 48 U.S.  
states, affecting mostly those run by Canadian carriers to winter  
getaways such as Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.  
Excluded from the plan are flights between two points in Canada, such  
as Toronto-Vancouver, in which the flight path temporarily crosses  
into U.S. airspace.

With the strong loonie making sunny destinations more affordable, a  
busy winter holiday season is expected for Canadian firms such as Air  
Canada, WestJet Airlines Ltd. and Transat A.T. Inc., analysts say.

Canada's no-fly list, the Passenger Protect program, took effect on  
June 18. Those named on the Canadian list are believed to pose an  
immediate threat to air security, but that list of up to 2,000 names  
is much shorter than the U.S. terrorist watch list developed after  
the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Separately, the International Air Transport Association plans to  
raise its concerns about the TSA's sweeping data-collection proposals  
that would cover flights between U.S. cities, as wells as flights  
between the United States and foreign airports. After a final ruling  
is published, airlines would have 60 days to comply.

The TSA said it is committed to safeguarding passenger privacy. “The  
vast majority of records are expected to be destroyed within seven  
days of completion of directional travel,” the TSA said in the  
Federal Register.

“Personal information will only be disclosed to, and used by,  
authorized individuals who have a need to know the information in  
order to perform their duties.”