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.