Xinjiang airport implements international passenger information system
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Xinhua, July 9, 2011
The international airport in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, will fully implement the advanced passenger information (API) system on July 20 to strengthen security, local authorities told Xinhua Saturday.
Urumqi Diwopu International Airport, among the country's five largest airports, began partial use of the API system in May 2008. Now it has been adopted in 70 percent of the flights at the airport, said Li Xiaoning, head of Urumqi Frontier Inspection Station.
However, without the remaining 30 percent of the flights participating in the system, it lacked complete accuracy, Li said.
On July 7, the inspection station signed contracts with 13 domestic and foreign airline companies in order to fully implement the system, Li said.
The API system collects passenger information and reports it to border inspection departments, which significantly increases the speed of customs clearance. Such a system has been adopted by other counties such as Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and and the Republic of Korea.
"The system allows the inspection station to examine passenger information in advance, which not only makes inspection work more targeted but also makes checking-in faster," Li said.
In the first six months of this year, the station apprehended nine wanted people via the system, Li said.
Urumqi airport is the only aviation linkage between west China and central Asian countries, Russia and the Middle East, as well as a transit hub connecting China and European counties.
Therefore, the inspection station serves as the frontier to combat criminals, terrorists, ethnic separatists and drug traffickers, Li said.
The station inspects 19 air routes to 12 countries.More than 2,000 international flights were inspected in the first half of this year.
