Airlines operating in Algeria are now required to send passenger data to the National Passenger Information Unit (NPIU), according to new amendments to the Civil Aviation Law published in the 15th issue of the Official Gazette.
The amendments pertain to Law No. 24-03, which modifies and supplements Law 98-06 defining the general rules related to civil aviation. The law was signed by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on February 26.
Under the amended and supplemented text, “air carriers are required to collect electronically, for each flight, booking, registration, and boarding information of passengers arriving, transiting, or departing from the national territory, as well as information and data relating to crew members and details about their means of transport, and send them to the body responsible for processing passenger information, in accordance with the regulations in force.”
The amendments also mandate that air carriers ensure the accuracy and completeness of information and data before sending it to the NPIU. They are also required to inform passengers about the transfer of their information and data to this unit.
Carriers that fail to comply with these measures face a fixed civil fine of 1 million Algerian Dinars (DZ) for each flight concerned. The fine is issued by decision of the NPIU and is collected by the Public Treasury and credited to it. The text states that this amount is doubled in case of repetition.
The new legal text also entrusts the National Civil Aviation Agency (AACN) with “preparing technical instructions for the application of the standards and recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and its amendments, and for protecting the rights of passengers.”
It is worth noting that the decision to establish a national passenger information system as a multi-sector support tool in the field of prevention of terrorism and transnational organized crime was made by presidential decree published in issue 71 of the Official Gazette in 2021.
This system includes the NPIU, a multi-sector operational body entrusted with the task of “collecting, processing, sending, and storing passenger information for users of air, sea, land, and rail routes from or to abroad,” according to the decree.
