Aeroflot Delegation To Discuss Passenger Control In New York

A delegation of Aeroflot will hold talks with the director of the Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS) program, Dorothy Wolf, in New York today. The aim of the talks is to discuss technical questions of cooperation within the framework of this program and to sign the respective memorandum of understanding. The negotiations on this issue had been planed earlier, but their importance has grown since the US administration made the decision on compulsory use of this system by American agencies after November 29, 2001. APIS allows for preliminary detection of suspicious passengers for security reasons, at the same time simplifying and speeding up the checking procedure at the destination. APIS has been in effect in the US for about three years. 106 airlines and the immigration service of Australia have joined the program as of now. Additionally, 94 carriers signed memorandums of understanding within the framework of APIS.