丹Milmo，运输通讯员
星期四2007年6月7日
监护人

离开美国机场的成千上万不列颠人面对必须的指纹识别根据新的安全指南。旅行从美国的乘客将必须提出他们的手指并且他们的护照在报到从明年的结尾，依据一位主要担保官员。 维京大西洋，顾客在终端也许被迫使忍受更长的等待，发誓反对移动。

迈克尔·杰克逊，国土安全的美国部门的代理秘书，说做法将适用于飞行在美国外面的所有乘客和航空公司，国家积累信息关于游遍美国的每个外国人。 “我们将需要生物统计并且传记式资料”，他说。

Under current regulations, EU airlines flying to the US have to supply passenger name records (PNR).

The arrangement is a source of tension, amid anger that American authorities are also seeking access to credit card details and email accounts. European flights have also been forced to turn around mid-air after US authorities barred certain passengers from entering the country, including Yusuf Islam, formerly known as the singer Cat Stevens. Mr Jackson said fingerprinting every passenger would not lead to long queues, even though airlines would have to do the job, and the procedure would be easy to integrate, over time, “into the business model of the industry”.

He said his department was willing to supply the electronic fingerprinting kit to airlines in the initial phase. Speaking at the International Air Transport Association conference in Vancouver, he said some larger airlines would be able to adapt existing check-in kiosks to scan passengers’ index fingers. “We don’t think phase one will be burdensome.”

He said the US would not demand a similar procedure for flights travelling from the UK to the US.

Airlines warned that the process would test passengers’ patience, already stretched by tight security guidelines in US and UK airports. Virgin Atlantic warned that mandatory fingerprinting “does not make sense” and it is lobbying against the proposal. “There is a real danger that it could create longer queues,” said Paul Charles, director of communications at Virgin. “Our check-in staff are not security or immigration officials and that’s not their role.”

Mr Jackson added that the most “catastrophic” threat to the airline industry was a rocket-propelled grenade attack similar to the one that nearly downed an Israeli airliner in Kenya five years ago. He said another attack on the scale of September 11 2001 was inevitable. “It is not clear whether it could be in aviation … but it would be silly not to understand that we will have many more September 11s. It is a long-term struggle.”

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