Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Beginning Thursday, passengers booked on a handful of U.S.-bound international flights will be required to complete a short, verbal security interview before they board, sources tell ABC News.
At least two airlines, Air France and Lufthansa, confirm that they will begin interviewing passengers on select flights on Thursday, with additional routes and other carriers expected to follow suit shortly.
The interviews will be conducted either during check-in or at the gate, multiple airlines tell ABC.
The new procedures come as part of former Homeland Security Sec. John Kelly’s initiative to “raise the global baseline of aviation security,” announced in June.
Rather than specifically mandating passenger interviews, the Department of Homeland Security and TSA instead instructed airlines to submit plans that would meet the “enhanced” passenger screening requirements initiated by Kelly.
Like the electronics screening requirement, the enhanced passenger screening requirements affects 280 airports in 105 countries running about 2,000 flights — or about 325,000 passengers — per day.
Though many airlines opted to do interviews, some may have met the requirements in other ways.
The Kelly initiative came amid a “web of threats to commercial aviation” as terrorists work toward smuggling explosives onto jets inside laptops or other electronics, according to the DHS.
“We cannot play international whack-a-mole with each new threat,” then-Sec. Kelly said told reporters in June. “Instead, we must put in place new measures across the board to keep the traveling public safe and make it harder for terrorists to succeed.”
“Security adjustments rooted in legitimate concerns are a fact of life for travelers,” U.S. Travel Association Executive Vice President Jonathan Grella said in a statement, adding that all changes in security posture should be “clearly communicated,” “continually reassessed,” and “tailored to specific vulnerabilities.”
“Legitimate business and leisure travelers are as welcome as ever in the United States,” he said.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.