In its work programme for 2022, the European Commission announced that the rules for advance passenger information would be updated, in particular, Council Directive 2004/82/EC of 29 April 2004 on the obligation of carriers to communicate passenger data.

Today, the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on two new regulations on Advance Passenger Information (API). The new rules will introduce inter alia:

• Uniform rules for data collection, setting a mandatory list of API data to be collected by air carriers from passengers on all flights to from and within the EU.
   
• Automated data collection, with manual insertions of the data in exceptional cases, to increase the efficiency and reliability of the data collection.
   
• A central router, which will receive the data collected by the air carriers and then transmit it to the relevant border management and law enforcement authorities. 

The agreement that was reached today will have to be confirmed by Member States’ representatives (Coreper) before formal adoption in the European Parliament and in the Council.

For further information, please read the press releases from the Council of the European Union and from the European Commission.