Meal choices can help in passenger profiling - Swiss

BTN News
Thursday, 15 December 2016

In-flight meal choices could be used to profile passengers arriving at international airports, a manager at Switzerland's national airline Swiss has told a border security conference.


Marina Ripa-Braescu, the carrier's facilitation and security manager said information about pre-ordered meals was useful for vetting travellers before they arrive at their destinations.


Commercial airlines already provide governments with a large amount of data about travellers before they board, and face steep fines if they fail to do so – but meal preferences are not currently part of that information.


After recommending using in-flight meal information to pre-screen passengers, Ripa-Braescu warned delegates there were major flaws in systems to verify information supplied by passengers before they travel.


But, she added, a carrier in the Middle East was working with Interpol, the international organisation that facilitates co-operation between police agencies to stop people using stolen travel documents.


That un-named carrier now is in a pilot project with Interpol to check passport information supplied by passengers before they travel against Interpol’s database of stolen and lost travel documents, she said.

Meal choices can help in passenger profiling - Swiss

BTN News
Thursday, 15 December 2016

In-flight meal choices could be used to profile passengers arriving at international airports, a manager at Switzerland's national airline Swiss has told a border security conference.


Marina Ripa-Braescu, the carrier's facilitation and security manager said information about pre-ordered meals was useful for vetting travellers before they arrive at their destinations.


Commercial airlines already provide governments with a large amount of data about travellers before they board, and face steep fines if they fail to do so – but meal preferences are not currently part of that information.


After recommending using in-flight meal information to pre-screen passengers, Ripa-Braescu warned delegates there were major flaws in systems to verify information supplied by passengers before they travel.


But, she added, a carrier in the Middle East was working with Interpol, the international organisation that facilitates co-operation between police agencies to stop people using stolen travel documents.


That un-named carrier now is in a pilot project with Interpol to check passport information supplied by passengers before they travel against Interpol’s database of stolen and lost travel documents, she said.