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Secure Flight Passenger Data program (SFPD) effective for all bookings Nov. 1

(August 5, 2010) – The next phase of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) mandate requiring full Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) submission is quickly approaching. The mandate applies to all airlines for flights to/from/within/over the U.S. as well as 100 percent of U.S. carriers’ operations regardless of geography.

The SFPD program allows the TSA to prescreen additional passenger data prior to departure to ensure a consistent customer experience and better manage the tracking of passenger watch lists. The program requires the passenger’s legal name, date of birth and gender and allows for an optional redress number against government watch lists for domestic and international flights. Full SFPD must be submitted by the airlines to the TSA 72 hours in advance of flight departures for all travel on or after November 1, 2010.

Delta Air Lines has communicated the TSA requirements to our travel agency partners since the program launch in 2009. Effective June 15, 2010, Delta direct booking channels became 100 percent compliant (e.g., delta.com, Reservations, Airports Ticket Offices) by requiring full SFPD before ticket issuance.

The TSA has indicated that there will be no exceptions; 100 percent compliance is mandatory. Therefore, to ensure compliance, Delta is implementing additional proactive steps for all of Delta’s reservations worldwide, regardless of the distribution channel.

As a result of the TSA mandate, the following policies have been adopted for all travel agency bookings:

Booking Policy – Effective immediately, for travel on or after November 1, 2010, Delta’s booking policy is amended to ensure SFPD compliance for travel on all Delta and Delta-coded flights. Failure to provide SFPD data may result in PNR cancellations and booking violation debit memos.

Reservation Cancellation - For PNRs without complete SFPD, Delta will begin alerting travel agencies of the missing information. Additional details on message formats will be published on Delta’s WorldAgent Direct website. To avoid TSA imposed fines under the Secure Flight mandate, all flight segments without complete SFPD may be subject to cancellation prior to the 72 hour TSA deadline for providing this information.

Inhibit Ticket Issuance – In the coming weeks, Delta will provide additional details on inhibiting ticketing when complete SFPD is not provided in conjunction with travel beginning November 1, 2010 and beyond on Delta and Delta-coded flights. Ticketing requests without SFPD included will generate an error message to the travel agent indicating that SFPD must be collected prior to ticketing.

Additional information in support of the above polices and procedures will be forthcoming in the near future.

For complete information about the TSA Secure Flight Program, please visit www.tsa.gov.

Thank you for your support of Delta Airlines. It is very important that we take care of our mutual customers by complying with the November 1 TSA secure flight mandate.