made what they thought was a simple request of airlines: Hand over five pieces of identifying information for each passenger, according to two federal officials with knowledge of the discussions. wanted people’s names, phone numbers, email addresses, the addresses where they would be staying in the United States and emergency contact information. All the airlines needed to do, the government said, was ask a few more questions when passengers checked in for their flights. wanted to mandate by law that air carriers collect and share such information. Those companies, which compete against airlines for customers, are loath to share passenger data with rival companies that might try to steal their business.

Source: International New York Times March 31, 2020 19:02 UTC