Overview
- The Bundesrat, driven by Lower Saxony, proposed requiring airlines to match passengers’ IDs with boarding passes as part of a Luftsicherheitsgesetz overhaul now before the Bundestag.
- The federal cabinet rejected the proposal this week without a substantive public rationale, while ministries acknowledged differing views and open issues.
- Police union official Andreas Roßkopf and Lower Saxony’s interior ministry backed the checks, citing investigative benefits and easier cross‑border data transmission for the Bundespolizei.
- Industry groups BDL and ADV warned of delegating state functions to private firms, risks to punctuality, and a lack of evident security gain, noting biometrics would need new legal bases.
- Similar checks are already standard in France, Belgium, and Spain, whereas Italy recently scrapped its requirement; the legislative process continues without a final rule.