Schiphol passport checks
 

I was flying from AMS to Italy i.e. a Schengen trip. Passport was checked at baggage drop off. There was no further passport/immigration control due to Schengen and we arrived at the boarding gate. Our boarding was done purely with a scanned boarding pass. There was no confirmation that my ID matched the boarding pass. I could have been anyone. I appreciate that Schengen is passport free travel, but from a security point of view I thought airlines were required to ensure that passengers travel with their luggage and are the same person as booked the flight. I could have gone into the Schengen area of the terminal and swapped boarding cards with someone and we could have boarded each other's flight with unknown baggage. From memory this is the first time this has happened, i.e. no passport check at the gate.
Is this now the EU rule? It does seem strange at a time when countries are thinking of tightening boarder controls. From a security point of view, if all hand baggage & hold baggage is screened and cleared for travel then, in theory, there is no security risk, but is it no longer the case that passengers have to travel with their own luggage when possible? I know about 'rush' luggage being approved. One would suspect that a passenger changing flights is suspicious and needs answering, but that can only be done with a check. Thus the only passport control is at baggage drop/check-in.

This has been the case for my trips with KLM from Sweden to AMS. I was surprised as well the first time.

In the old days I would drive thru five different countries in one day, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, England and Wales and the only place I was ever asked for my passport was when entering my own damn country in Dover! ... I was never asked for ID to board the cross channel ferry so why should an aeroplane be any different?

I think the ID vs boarding pass name check was introduced by the LoCo's as an excuse for bumping you off or charging for a name change, basically your ticket, not that we have tickets any longer, is your life insurance and if it ain't your name on it then tough!

I remember the good old days when my business traveler dad gathered all his unused (full fare) sectors from several tickets and booked an BHX-DUS-CPH-AMS-BHX flight in his name for me to use!

I don't think this is unusual. I've flown many intra Schengen sectors without passport/ID card check at the gate. On a flight from STK to AGP last year with SAS I used my Lufthansa Miles & More membership card in a self-service check-in machine as the only identification. The machine printed by baggage tag which I then attached and sent it through an automatic check-in desk. At security used the same card in a machine which printed a document the size of a bus ticket to confirm my seat allocation on board and was the only thing I required to board. No photo ID, and a fully automated procedure.

I read the comments, but my query was why it has changed in the past couple of years? I know the Schengen rules, but my thought was about ensuring that passengers travelled with their own luggage and that the person boarding an a/c was the correct guy, from a security point of view. Thinking about Interpol and tracking people, it renders that unreliable in Schengen (at airports) because the checkin does not ensure that person boarded that flight, and there is no passport check at arrival. I know Schengen is about free travel, and only airports have an opportunity to check. I was just curious in this day an age that something like this would be relaxed. Does anyone have the inside facts on this, and is it now common at all Schengen airports? Surely it must be a collective policy.

It is standard now a days.

With British Airways you can fly domestically from anywhere in the U.K. or Ireland (CTA) without ID. This is not checked at the gate for boarding so technically you could buy a ticket and somebody else travel in name so long as you had no bags, or the person comes to the airport with you if they have bags, they check in travel and nobody would ever know.

Scary thought in today's world but then so are a lot of things in the aviation industry.

Surely the basis of that rule was the assumption that the security threat wanted to not be on the plane and thus survive. the people you are protecting against these days don’t care if they survive... that rule is pointless and 100% screening of luggage is done so who cares who is on a “domestic” flight.

The bags are still screened to the same level regardless of what tag is on the handle though, so the risk is minimal, surely?

I went through AMS last week EDI-AMS-KBP. On the way out I had no extra screening between getting off the EDI flight and boarding my KBP flight. On the way back I was screened between the KBP and EDI flights, presumably because KBP is non EU, even though they adhere to the same standards as the EU.

In the old days routing BHX/DUS/KBP/DUS/BHX, 50 seater CRJ's all the way there and back, I don't recall any passport or ID checks in DUS, both flights arrived and departed from the same finger, both non Schengen, so I guess "what the hell"!

Why would there be passport checks while you were in transit airside? You technically never entered Germany. Would you have tried to leave the terminal to landside, you would have been checked by the border police. As you were not trying to do that, it was up to UK border control to check you leaving the country of departure (which the UK does not do, contrary to many other countries) and the Ukraine to check you entering Ukraine.

virginblue

A very good post and at last a more accurate one.

The UK, Ireland, and just a handful of other countries, do not have border control checking the passports of departing pax as there is no point. It is a waste of everyone's time but most countries do it.

The main concern is to check pax entering a country and border control should have adequate staff to do the job. Queues are always long at border control in most countries because there aren't enough staff available most of the time, so why waste some of them on departing pax and make the queues in arrivals even longer?

Any country concerned about who is leaving can have carriers supply pax lists to their equivelants of the Home Office, or if they're after a specific person at a specific time, have the police at the gate or at security.

But I would regularly transit thru AMS, not entering The Netherlands, and regularly pass thru a passport check and/or security check, even once I had to go to the police office on the side because the Luxembourg police had put out an APB on me to the Dutch and Belgians under an old BENELUX arrangement.

The UK, Ireland, and just a handful of other countries, do not have border control checking the passports of departing pax as there is no point. It is a waste of everyone's time but most countries do it.

So the police put out an all points to border posts to search for Mr/Mrs XYZ. The check in person is not security. They check the passport at check-in, true. That could alert a flagged person, but does it? Is their system linked in? If not then a APB to airports in Schengen is useless. Further, if police wanted to track a suspect's moments across Schengen they could not. XYZ checks in for flight ABC, but in fact swaps boarding passes with an accomplice and travels to DEF and disappears. The police waiting at HIJ to intercept are left dumfounded. It does seem strange in a era when security seems to getting tighter.
I'm not a great supporter of Big Brother, but it seems uncoordinated when compared to some of the petty trivial security checks that are enforced.

Previously I have seen pax removed form the departure passport check (Schengen) as they had been flagged as not having paid certain fines, or alimony or tax etc. That is why departure checks were thought useful. However, I understand that it violates the principle of Schengen and as checks can not be enforced across all forms of travel, why bother with any?

But these checks don't exist if you travel by road, train, or even by foot. Therefore I fail to understand why you feel they should be needed specifically for air travel?

In the UK I have seen on occasions, immigration officials situated after security and stopping people on request, so it is not unheard of if they are looking for anything in particular.

I have also seen in MAN and LHR that if you fly domestic, then a picture is taken of your face when you first scan your boarding pass prior to security and whilst you approach the gate, a second picture is taken when you next scan your boarding pass and a cross check to verify that the first and second image match.

An interesting topic. I have been comparing recent aviation ID checks with other forms of international travel. On Brittany Ferries you show your passport to an official on departure and arrival, same with the train, which permits a visual ID check and passport scan if necessary. You could, in theory, swap passports after that point but would be in trouble on arrival because your passport picture and you would not match unless a substitution had taken place after check-in. Most people keep a firm grip on their passport or other ID which I think is the best protection against abuse. Having said that, though, I am aware that some people carry multiple passports. Would it matter if they showed different passports at check-in and arrival?

A friend of mine recently got went through Charles de Gaulle and Madrid airports from Canada on a British passport and was directed to the non-EU desks at both airporrts. She ignored them and went to the EU desks, a sign of things to come maybe?

But these checks don't exist if you travel by road, train, or even by foot. Therefore I fail to understand why you feel they should be needed specifically for air travel?


Hence my last sentence. I was just curious that it had happened with little/no publication.

However, I understand that it violates the principle of Schengen and as checks can not be enforced across all forms of travel, why bother with any?