Interior Minister Hortefeux to unveil new airline security measures

French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has been pushing for sweeping airline security tightening measures to be implemented in France, according to a news report in a leading French daily published Tuesday.

The plan, outlined in “Le Figaro”, comes in the wake of an attempted bombing incident on Christmas Day on board a US aircraft flying from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Hortefeux’s plan would require that detailed profile information of passengers travelling to France from certain “high risk” countries be made available at the ticket reservation stage. This information, including details such as the method of payment, billing address, phone number and email address would be available to security authorities at any given time.

The current French list of “high risk” countries includes Yemen, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Algeria and Mali. According to the report, Hortefeux would like to extend the list to about 30 countries. The new list however would remain classified.

While these measures are already technically possible, the report said the French minister would like all airlines in France to implement them as early as January 1, 2010. According to "Le Figaro", Hortefeux plans to fine airlines who fail to collect passenger data from high-risk countries.

Under current procedures, a passenger’s identification information is only supplied at the check-in stage. Hortefeux would like to put in place a system similar to that in the US, where passenger data is transmitted to border police ahead of the flight.