Aviation Security Explained
Menu

How airport security and border control work

What happens to your passport and booking data, how biometric gates and scanners work, who runs these systems, how governments buy them and who checks them. Plain answers, every fact sourced.

How your data moves

API and PNR: how airlines share passenger data with governmentsWhat advance passenger information (API) and passenger name records (PNR) are, who sends and receives them, the global rules and how long data is kept.Who keeps your passport and biometric data at the airportAirlines, airports, border agencies and their contractors each hold parts of your passport and face data. Who keeps what, for how long, and how to ask.Watch lists and Interpol checks at the airportHow border officers check passports and names against Interpol databases and national watch lists, what happens on a match, and how to seek redress.Data protection laws by countryA table of data protection laws, regulators and border data rules in about 25 countries, plus how security and police exemptions work.

At the airport

How biometric border control worksHow ePassports, eGates, facial recognition, fingerprints and the EU Entry/Exit System check travellers at the border, with error rates and privacy rules.How airport security screening worksHow passengers, cabin bags and hold bags are screened: ICAO Annex 17, who runs checkpoints, body scanners, CT scanners, liquids rules and security fees.E-visas and electronic travel authorisations explainedThe difference between a visa, an e-visa and an ETA, with fees for ESTA, eTA, UK ETA, ETIAS, Australia and Kenya, and how to avoid copycat sites.

How governments run these systems

How governments buy airport security and border systemsBudget purchases, donor funding, PPPs and concessions, passenger fees, single-source deals and security exemptions: how border systems get bought.Who audits airport security and border systemsAudit offices, parliaments, data regulators, courts, ICAO audits, EU bodies and inspectors general: who checks border and airport security systems.Who makes airport security and border systemsA neutral directory of 17 firms that supply passenger data systems, biometrics, eGates, screening machines and border software, as of 19 October 2026.

Reference

Glossary of airport security and border termsPlain definitions of 58 terms used in passenger data, biometrics, eGates, screening, border rules, procurement and data protection.

Country guides

What happens at the border in each country: entry permission, biometrics, passenger data, watch lists and your data rights.

AustraliaCanadaIndiaJapanSaudi ArabiaSchengen AreaSingaporeUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited States

Systems in detail

Deep explainers on the big border systems travellers meet: the EU Entry/Exit System, ETIAS, the UK ETA, the US ESTA and the ICAO Public Key Directory.

ESTAETIASThe EU Entry/Exit System explainedThe ICAO Public Key DirectoryThe UK Electronic Travel Authorisation

Data tables

Country-by-country tables: who collects passenger data, where eGates run and every electronic travel authorisation scheme.

Advance passenger information and PNR collection by countryAutomated border control gates (eGates) by countryElectronic travel authorisation schemes around the world

How we work

We rely on primary sources first: ICAO standards, UN resolutions, laws, regulators and official agency pages. We describe every supplier the same way and do not rank or endorse anyone. Each page shows when it was last checked. Read the methodology.

Last updated 19 October 2026.