Travellers urged to register online

Holidaymakers and business travellers face more red tape as new security measures are put in place around the world.

Spanish authorities have opted for the early adoption of Advanced Passenger Information (API) requirements. These new European security rules require passengers to provide detailed personal information such as their full name, nationality, date of birth and passport number.

To save delays, Easyjet launched an online facility earlier this month to collect information from all passengers travelling to Spain; British Airways also lets passengers register this information online and other airlines are expected to follow suit.

European travellers heading to the US may also have to register online first under new proposals moving through the US Congress.

People heading for the States would have to fill out a questionnaire online 48 hours before they travel. The online registration, if pushed through, will resemble the Australian system where visa waiver travellers register online.

The US also wants the EU countries to improve data-sharing, report stolen and lost passports more rigorously and guarantee they will repatriate citizens who are ordered out of the United States.

However, the US and European authorities are already at loggerheads about how much passenger data US security operations can have on European air passengers. The new proposal is expected to heighten tensions; there are also concerns about the problems it will cause business travellers who have to change plans at the last minute.

The US requirement has been proposed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It would affect travellers in 27 countries, mostly in Western Europe, who are now able to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without visas.

The new measures would also apply to new entrants to the same so-called Visa Waiver Program, a status sought by 12 countries, many of them Eastern and Central European states new to the European Union.

The US already has its Automated Targeting System which applies a risk-assessment rating to tourists entering and leaving the country.

According to reports, the chief privacy officer for the DHS, Hugo Teufel III, has said the latest proposal has been bandied about for around a month now but he refused to say when it might be implemented.