The 16th WCO/International Air Transport Association (IATA)/International Civil Aviation (ICAO) Advance Passenger Information (API) / Passenger Name Record (PNR) (the Contact Committee) Meeting took place on 12 and 13 October 2022, chaired by Mr. Mohammad Ally from South Africa. The meeting was held in a hybrid mode with 24 people attending in person at WCO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and 112 online from around the world. Delegates of partner organizations from IATA and ICAO also participated in the Meeting.
Following the revised Terms of Reference (ToR) endorsement by the Policy Commission and Council in June 2022, the Meeting’s membership was opened for all WCO and ICAO Members. An orientation workshop was organized to provide participants with basic information regarding the Contact Committee. The Workshop was conducted a day before the Contact Committee Meeting and discussed the significance of advance passenger data, the roles of the Contact Committee and its Member organizations, and steps for implementing an API/PNR programme. Several Members at different API/PNR maturity levels shared their experiences, challenges, and lessons learned in implementing the programme.
Mr. Pranab Kumar Das, Director, Compliance and Facilitation Directorate, opened the Meeting. In his opening remarks, Mr. Das underlined the critical role of the Contact Committee in enabling a balanced approach to air travel facilitation and control by border control agencies.
To help set the context of the Contact Committee Meeting, the IATA representative provided information on the recent developments and future outlook for air travel. The representative informed the Contact Committee about air travel traffic recovery in different regions and reported that many States are removing COVID-19 related restrictions and requirements and adopting digital solutions and contactless processes.
The Contact Committee consolidated, discussed, and subsequently approved its Work Programme. The Work Programme is a robust basis for the Contact Committee to organize its work in a session or during the intersession. Following the successful work in updating the API Guidelines, the Contact Committee examined the Management Summary on Passenger-related Information (Umbrella Document) and considered reviewing and revising the document to keep it up to date.
Establishing a legal framework is one of the key steps in implementing API/PNR Programmes. In that regard, the Contact Committee was updated with international legal frameworks outlining legal requirements for implementing API/PNR Programme based on the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARP). The Contact Committee also discussed legal enablers for Customs to access PNR data and use it for Customs purposes. The Contact Committee agreed to explore mechanisms to make such information accessible to Members.
At the end of its Meeting, the Contact Committee re-elected Mohamed Ally as Chairperson and Luis Mendoza from Peru as Vice Chairperson. The elected Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson will serve until June 2024.