Up to 105,000 air passengers per week could have their flights cancelled, unless the US and the EU harmonise their rules on passengers' personal security by Sept 30, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general Giovanni Bisignani said.
He warned, in a press conference here, that the US and Europe have to act swiftly to avoid a huge transatlantic crisis over the coming weeks, with potential legal chaos leading to many flight cancellations.
In June, the European Court of Justice ruled illegal the EU's approval for airlines to pass on to US authorities private data on passengers on flights bound for the US or making stopovers there. The US had introduced the rule for security reasons. The court gave the EU and the US a deadline of end-September to negotiate a new agreement, allowing the transfer of the data to continue till then.
If there is no agreement by Sept 30, the airlines will have a legal problem, as the transfer of private data will be banned in Europe but mandatory in the US. Bisignani said airlines should not be obliged to choose which national laws they should transgress.
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