ICAO 9944 PDF

FOREWORD

Note.— Throughout these guidelines, the use of the male gender should be understood to include male and female persons.

In the present climate of intensified security controls, it is recognized that modern facilitation tools such as machine readable passports (MRPs) and advance passenger information (API) systems enhance overall the security of international civil aviation. In recent years, the level of interest in using API as a security measure has increased. Some States have deemed it necessary, in order to combat terrorism and to protect their borders, to go beyond the API requirements and to require additional data relating to passengers to be stored in the reservation and other such systems of aircraft operators.

This issue of collection, by States, of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data was first raised in ICAO at the Twelfth Session of the Facilitation Division held in Cairo, Egypt, from 22 March to 1 April 2004. The Division adopted Recommendation B/5 that reads as follows:

It is recommended that ICAO develop guidance material for those States that may require access to Passenger Name Record (PNR) data to supplement identification data received through an API system, including guidelines for distribution, use and storage of data and a composite list of data elements [that] may be transferred between the operator and the receiving State.

In June 2004, pursuant to this recommendation, the Air Transport Committee requested the Secretary General to establish a Secretariat study group to develop guidelines on PNR data transfer. The Council, in endorsing Recommendation B/5, directed that these guidelines were to be submitted early in 2005.

In March 2005, the ICAO Council adopted the following Recommended Practice for inclusion in Annex 9 to the Chicago Convention — Facilitation:

Recommended Practice.— Contracting States requiring Passenger Name Record (PNR) access should conform their data requirements and their handling of such data to guidelines developed by ICAO.

In April 2006, these guidelines were published in Circular 309.

In 2008, following a recommendation made by the Fifth meeting of the Facilitation Panel (FALP), a working group was established to revise, as appropriate, Circular 309 in light of recent global developments on the issue of PNR data transfer. The working group presented its results to the Sixth meeting of the FALP, held in Montréal in May 2010. The Panel agreed to the final version of the revised guidelines as contained in this manual.