In a recent article, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have reinforced their opinion that sharing data throughout the world is critically important to track and monitor the movements of potential threats, particularly in the environment of international air travel.

Since 9/11 the issue of aviation security has been high on the agenda for the U.S. and for many of its international partners. Recently, with the spread of threat against the west from militant groups such as the Islamic State organisation, security forces all over the world are stepping up security measures in a bid to control or at least monitor the movement of its members and those who are leaving their home countries to join these terrorist groups.

To mitigate such risks to national and international security, given that the number of air travellers consistently rises by an average of 5% every year, DHS maintain that sharing data is the strongest way to monitor passengers. The introduction of Advance Passenger Information (API), a system that is fast-spreading throughout the world, gives agencies and governments the opportunity to analyse passenger data before aircraft leave the ground for their destination country on a domestic and an international scale.

DHS believes that the coordination of sharing data is as important as the collection of API. Sharing must be seamless, between airports and authorities, governments and agencies and between countries. Only then can the process of sharing data be effective.