US to Introduce Biometric Airport Checks By 2008

Millions of Britons leaving United States airports face mandatory fingerprinting under new security guidelines.

Passengers who travel to and from the US will have to present their index fingers as well as their passports at check-in from the end of next year, according to a senior security official.

Michael Jackson, deputy secretary of the department of homeland security, said the procedure would apply to all passengers and airlines - including British carriers - flying out of the US as the country accumulates a mass of information on every person traveling through America. Four million Britons visit the US every year.

Mr Jackson said: "What we are trying to say is that it's not enough to give biographical data. We will need biometric as well as biographical data."

Under current regulations, EU airlines flying to the US have to supply 34 separate pieces of passenger name records (PNR) to the Department of Homeland Security. The arrangement is a source of tension between the EU and US, amid anger at the fact that American authorities could now ask for credit card and email account access.

A number of European flights have also been forced to turn around in mid-air after US authorities barred certain passengers from entering the country - including the British singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens.

Mr Jackson said the requirement to fingerprint every passenger would not lead to long queues in terminals, even though airlines would have to carry out the procedure: "Our objective is to have this in operation by the end of 2008. It will be easy to integrate this, over time, into the business model of the industry."

The deputy secretary added that his department was willing to supply the electronic fingerprinting kit to airlines in the initial phase of rolling out the scheme. Speaking at the IATA airline industry conference in Vancouver, he said some larger airlines would be able to adapt existing check-in kiosks to scan passengers' index fingers.

"We don't think phase one will be burdensome and we are willing to give out the fingerprint device". Mr Jackson said the US would not demand a similar procedure in the UK. The mandatory fingerprinting stems from a new law introduced in the US recently.

Mr Jackson also stated that the most "catastrophic" threat to the airline industry is a rocket-propelled grenade attack similar to the one that nearly downed an Israeli airliner in Kenya five years ago. The shoulder-fired missiles narrowly missed a plane carrying more than 200 tourists as it took off from Mombassa. Steve Ridgway, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic said the airline had taken note of the RPG threat in Kenya before launching a service to the country's capital, Nairobi.

Mr Jackson added that another attack on the scale of September 11 was inevitable: "It is to me vividly clear that terrorists will provoke another 9/11. It is not clear whether it could be in aviation... but it would be silly not to understand that we will have many more September 11s in the lifetime of ourselves and our children. It is a long-term struggle."