About APIS
APIS Overview
APIS is an acronym for Advance Passenger Information Processing, the regulations that set standards for reporting and pre-arrival and departure manifests for commercial flight operations of all types that fly to, from or over the United States and any its territories.
In the wake of 2001 terrorist attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania by four hijacked commercial flights, airline security was placed in the hands of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and administered by two divisions- Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Transportation Security Agency (TSA). Compliance is prescribed by Federal Laws and is mandatory, manifests must be filed in specific format and in a timely manner; errors or missing data can result in flight delays and fines that starting at $4,000 ($US) per incident and up to $70,000 per flight.
- Some of the APIS challenges faced by airlines today include the following:
- Integration with legacy flight management, crew scheduling and reservation systems
- Keeping pace with new and expanding government security reporting regulations
- Minimizing the costs associated with increased security initiatives, like APIS
- Implementing APIS compliance with minimum impact on timely aircraft loading and departure
- Transmitting sensitive customer and employee data (crew) over secure connections to DHS mainframes
- Tracking and archiving all APIS transmissions for future reference
Today, more and more governments are implementing different flavors of APIS, sometimes called API, to deal with their specific national air security concerns. Over 20 countries now have APIS/API in place and there are dozens more that will have system in place over the next year or two. Airlines now face multiple security compliance issues on almost every international flight. Tight schedules, rising operating costs and aircraft filled to capacity means an avoidable delay caused by poor security compliance can ripple through the schedule and cause expensive cost that land directly on an airline’s bottom line.
