CanWest News Service is running a very interesting feature-length report on the upcoming Canadian "no fly" list. Read the entire article ...

Canadian airline passengers will be kept under close scrutiny

Canadian airline passengers will be kept under close scrutiny

Don Butler

CanWest News Service

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

OTTAWA - The RCMP and the Canadian Security Information Service will be able to examine up to 34 pieces of information about everyone who flies in Canada under a comprehensive passenger screening program being developed by Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada.

Among other things, the program will require airlines to gather and share the full legal name, date of birth, citizenship or nationality and gender of all passengers - information they don't currently collect for domestic flights.

The new program will affect about 90 million passenger trips a year, two-thirds of which are purely domestic.

The program is authorized under Section 4.82 of the Aeronautics Act, which gives CSIS and the RCMP the right to receive and analyse Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) data from air carriers and operators of aviation reservation systems without a warrant.

API data is collected at check-in and include name, date of birth, gender, citizenship or nationality and travel document information. PNR data is collected at the time of booking and includes information relating to a traveller's reservation and itinerary.

Section 4.82, added to the Aeronautics Act in 2004 when the Public Safety Act was passed but not yet in force, also authorizes CSIS and the RCMP to match passenger information against any other data under their control.

The Section 4.82 program ''is envisioned as the next step'' in a two-pronged strategy to use airline passenger information to combat terrorist threats, said Philip McLinton, a spokesman for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada.

The first step - Canada's new no-fly list - will be introduced in March for domestic flights and in June for international flights.

McLinton said it's ''impossible to speculate how 4.82 would impact the no-fly list. It's just too early to say.''

Since 2002, airlines flying to Canada from abroad have had to provide API and PNR data to the Canadian Border Services Agency, which analyses and risk-scores it to identify passengers who require further review on arrival in Canada. The agency doesn't get the information until flights have departed for Canada.

Under the Section 4.82 program, the collection and analysis of passenger information will dramatically expand. Airlines and operators of reservation systems will have to send passenger information to the RCMP and CSIS for all domestic and international flights. And they'll have to do so before flights depart.

The no-fly program, known as Passenger Protect, obliges airlines to vet the names of passengers against the no-fly list and notify Transport Canada is there is a match. That responsibility will shift to the RCMP and CSIS under the Section 4.82 program.

...

Section 4.82 also authorizes CSIS and the RCMP to disclose passenger information to other organizations or individuals to promote public safety. They include the minister of Transport, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, air carriers, airport operators and police officers. ...

It is unclear how, or even whether, the passenger information gathered under the Section 4.82 program would be shared with the U.S. and other allies. The feasibility study cites two issues with the PNR data that would be collected and shared under the section 4.82 program.

...

Another issue is passenger information that is currently not collected during the reservation process, but is essential for the new Section 4.82 program to operate effectively.

Most important is full name, date of birth and gender, which the study says is ''widely viewed as the core set of information required'' to match existing law enforcement records. That information is not currently collected for domestic passengers, so regulations may be needed to make provision of that information mandatory.

''For domestic flights, if the government regulates a requirement for passengers to provide full name, date of birth and gender, the air carriers' view is that passengers would comply, and that air carriers would provide this data,'' the feasibility study says.

To avoid causing delays to the travelling public, the study also says swift and timely information flow is required that can take account of last-minute changes such as no-shows.

...

Ottawa Citizen

Here's the list of 34 pieces of information to be collected by airlines on everyone who travels on domestic or international flights flying in or out of Canada:

1. Surname, first name and initial or initials.

2. Date of birth.

3. Citizenship or nationality or, if not known, the country that issued the travel documents for the person's flight.

4. Gender.

5. Passport number and, if applicable, visa number or residency document number.

6. The date on which passenger name was first recorded with airline.

7. If applicable, a notation the person arrived at the departure gate with a ticket but without a reservation for the flight.

8. If applicable, the names of the travel agency and travel agent who made the person's travel arrangements.

9. Date airline ticket was issued.

10. If applicable, a notation the person exchanged their ticket for another flight.

11. The date, if any, by which a ticket for a flight had to be paid to avoid cancellation of the reservation; or the date, if any, on which the request for a reservation was activated by the air carrier or travel agency.

12. Airline ticket number.

13. Whether the flight is a one way.

14. If applicable, a notation the person's ticket for the flight is valid for one year and is issued for travel between specified points with no dates.

15. The city or country where the flight begins.

16. All points where a passenger will embark or disembark.

17. The name of airline.

18. The names of all airlines to be used on trip.

19. The aircraft operator's code and flight ID number.

20. The person's destination.

21. The travel date for the person's flight.

22. Any seat assignment on the person's flight selected for the person before departure.

23. Number of pieces of baggage checked by the person.

24. The baggage tag numbers

25. Class of service (first class, business class, economy).

26. Any specific seat request.

27. The passenger name record number.

28. Phone numbers of the person and, if applicable, of the travel agency that made the arrangements.

29. Passenger's address and, if applicable, that of the travel agency.

30. How the passenger paid for the ticket.

31. If applicable, a notation the ticket was paid for by another person

32. If applicable, a notation there are gaps in the passenger's itinerary that necessitate travel by an undetermined method.

33. Departure and arrival points, codes of the aircraft operators, stops and surface segments.

34. If applicable, a notation the ticket is in electronic form and stored in an aviation reservation system.

Labels: air travel, airlines, international travel, law enforcement, national security, no-fly list, privacy, surveillance