Passenger profiling at airports

By Vijay Kumar

India has become the eighth country in the world to introduce passenger profiling at airports in view of the terrorist strikes at vital points.

Known as the Advance Passenger Information Control System (APICS), passenger profiling is in place in seven countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Korea.

It is now introduced at New Delhi airport and will be extended to Mumbai by January 2007.

The risk parameters include passenger details given before take-off, like where the ticket was purchased, whether the payment was in cash or by card, the address, etc. The system flags certain passengers based on these. This results in increased workload, but it also means more precise and logically arrived at results.

Once a database is created, it will facilitate faster clearances for frequent flyers while past offenders will be immediately flagged.