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Aircraft take-off at Frankfurt Airport
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
For flights within Germany and the EU, ID checks could soon be introduced nationwide. This is the result of a draft law of the EU Commission. According to this, airlines are to collect so-called API data, i.e. information on the identity of passengers, on all flights in the future – even on purely domestic travel or travel within the control-free Schengen area.
Although, according to the draft, ID checks are to be carried out only by airlines and not by border officials, there is a risk of delays in clearance. FDP MEP Jan-Christoph Oetjen fears that passengers will have to have their ID scanned at the check-in counter in the future, even if they only travel with hand luggage. "The days when you just go to the gate and fly off would be over."
Oetjen considers it unlikely that the ID check when boarding the plane will take place together with the ticket check. "If there are still problems there, it would lead to many delays, and passengers might even have to be denied boarding."
Mbe