SITA has announced that it has gone live with a system for filtering
sensitive passenger information on behalf of EU airlines and others flying into
North America.The Canadian government contracted SITA globally to transfer airline Passenger Name
Record (PNR) data compiled from booking and check-in records. SITA has now developed
a service on behalf of the airlines for filtering out sensitive fields of
information which would be in breach of Canadian and EU privacy legislation.

The service was first tested in April 2006 and has now been adopted by seven
airlines flying into Canada: Alitalia, Czech, KLM, Martinair, Olympic, Swiss and one
leading US carrier.

 

Tom Marten, SITA Vice President, Government and Security, said, “SITA’s service
has been working well since it went live in April. On behalf of the airline
customer, we act as an intermediary between the airline and the receiving
government. We extract the PNR data from the airline’s Reservations and Departure
Control Systems and push it across our secure network after the sensitive fields of
information have been filtered out. None of the PNR data is saved on our system once
it has been exported.”

 

“This new Push/PNR Filter helps airlines meet their dual obligations. On the one
hand, they must protect the data of their passengers and conform to national and
international privacy directives. On the other hand, they must provide limited
information on passengers according to the laws of countries seeking to improve
national security. The SITA services provide a convenient, rapid and economical
alternative for many airlines which would otherwise have to build an equivalent
solution themselves.”

 

SITA is in discussion with a number of airlines which would like to use the
“Push/PNR Filter” to transfer PNR data to the United States following a recent
ruling by the European Court of Justice.

 

The Push/PNR Filter service is the latest addition to SITA’s expanding capability
in border management and security. The company has signed contracts valued at $44
million so far this year for the provision of its border management solutions,
including its Advance Passenger Processing (APP) Solution which facilitates
passenger flows and security monitoring by allowing instant pre-boarding checks
against any watch lists held in the country of destination.

 

SITA’s border management solutions are in operation for Australia, Canada, New
Zealand and Bahrain and are in the process of being implemented for Kuwait and Fiji.
SITA is also involved in PNR pilots in two EU countries.
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