American Airlines starts asking for additional flight security data from its customers

American Airlines has begun asking its customers to provide additional information in accordance with the new Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) requirements of the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

An American Airlines plane

The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement that, through the Secure Flight Passenger Data programme, it aims to check out all passengers on domestic flights by early 2010 and to check out all international passengers travelling into and out of the United States by the end of 2010.

The new security policy applies to passengers travelling on flights of American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection and to tickets bought on or after September 15, 2009, but not to tickets issued before that date.

American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation.

According to the Transportation Security Administration, the Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) programme is aimed at “streamlining the TSA’s watch-list matching process in order to enhance the security of domestic and international commercial air travel.”

According to a press release from American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States, customers will be “asked or prompted” to furnish the following information when they make a reservation and buy ticket on the airline’s website AA.com or American Airlines Reservations or through a ticket agent:

• Full name (first name, middle name and last name, as appearing on the

non-expired, government-issued photo ID they are travellng with).

• Date of birth.
• Gender.
• Redress Number (if applicable), which is a number assigned by the TSA to

customers, who believe that they have been mistakenly matched to a name on

the watch-list, to help prevent misidentification.

More information on the Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) can be had from the website www.dhs.gov/trip

In the press release, American Airlines said that members of the AAdvantage Program are “strongly encouraged to update their accounts with their Secure Flight Passenger Data.”  In order to update an AAdvantage profile on AA.com, a member has to login and go to ‘My Account,’ then click the ‘Contact Information and Password’ tab at the top of the screen.

Those customers who do not have an AAdvantage account, American Airlines added, can “simplify their travel experience with the airline” by enrolling in the AAdvantage programme.

Members of AAdvantage Program can store their Secure Flight Passenger Data and can be automatically retrieved every time they make a reservation and buy ticket on the website AA.com or from an American Airlines Representative.

To join the free programme, a customer of American Airlines has been requested to visit the website www.aa.com/enroll

American Airlines said it has provided additional information on the Secure Flight Passenger Data programme on the websites www.aa.com/secureflight and www.tsa.gov/secureflight