Home > News > world-news

Kuala Lumpur, May 13 : As part of ongoing efforts to enhance international travel security, AirAsia is to pilot INTERPOL's I-Checkit system to screen the passports of all its prospective passengers against the world police body's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database.

Once implemented later this month the pilot project will see AirAsia become the first airline to integrate I-Checkit with their own check in systems during the passenger check-in phase across its entire international network, allowing passenger passport numbers to be compared against INTERPOL's SLTD database which contains more than 40 million records from 167 countries.

I-Checkit will allow the airline to query the SLTD database but not gain direct access to it. With the pilot project respecting national legislation linked to data protection, no personal data will be transmitted to INTERPOL, with only the travel document number, form of document and country code screened against SLTD.

Should a passenger's passport register a positive match against the database, AirAsia has procedures in place that will refer the passenger to local authorities.

INTERPOL's procedures would simultaneously be engaged to notify all relevant INTERPOL National Central Bureaus worldwide.

AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes, said: "AirAsia is extremely pleased to be the first airline globally to collaborate with INTERPOL to implement I-Checkit. The partnership we have created will result in improved passenger security and will support our desire to offer low fares, but with the added assurance that this system and partnership provides."

The I-Checkit system will be deployed across all of AirAsia's international operations, covering a network of 100 airports across Asia and 600 international flights per day to more than 20 countries worldwide.

In the event of a positive match registered via I-Checkit, alerts for further verification will also be sent to INTERPOL's National Central Bureau (NCB) of the country that owns the travel document data, and to INTERPOL's General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France.

"INTERPOL is very proud to be piloting I-Checkit with AirAsia. This will raise the bar across the industry for passenger safety and security by preventing individuals using stolen or lost passports from boarding international flights," said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble during his visit AirAsia operations at Kuala Lumpur's klia2 terminal.

More here:

AirAsia to pilot INTERPOL I-Checkit system