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International corporate travel services company, Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), welcomes new security procedures for air travellers and is working with clients to ensure corporate travellers continue business as usual.

This month the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is set to implement the Secure Flight program to improve security and fight the risk of terrorism. All travellers arriving to, leaving from, flying within or over the United States will be required to give their name, date of birth, gender, redress number*, passport number, country of issue and expiry date, passenger flight and aircraft data to the airline operator to pass onto the TSA 72 hours prior to departure.

Stewart Harvey, Director of Client Management at HRG, said: “Security for business travellers is a very important issue and we welcome all measures to make air travel as safe as possible. However we do believe that all new security regulations and requirements would benefit from industry wide standardisation. If governments and the industry work together on common platforms, all information gathered would be in the same format the world over.

“It is essential that companies are ready to adhere to new regulations so that travellers are not inconvenienced or delayed. HRG is already addressing a number of concerns raised by the industry, including the use of full given names correctly stated from passport details and effective correlation of frequent flyer schemes with passenger data, to ensure our clients are not adversely affected. We are working with suppliers to deliver effective solutions before the rules come into place. We are striving to ensure all our clients are briefing their employees to input the correct information when making bookings.”

The TSA Secure Flight program is being rolled out in two phases. TSA is asking for passengers' full names beginning 15 May, along with date of birth and gender as of 15 August**. The details are being used by TSA for pre-departure watch list matching and will be in line with the current redress process run by the Department of Homeland Security.

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* Redress number: a unique number given to an individual by the US Authorities, where the name has regularly identified that person for additional screening, but the person poses no risk to the US.

** Dates yet to be confirmed by the TSA

For further information:
Sallyanne Heywood / Katy Carmen
Hogg Robinson Group
Tel: +44 (0) 1256 312624 / Tel: +44 (0) 1256 312622
Sallyanne.heywood@hrgworldwide.com / Katy.carmen@hrgworldwide.com

Veronica Rossini/Rowan Usher
Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster
Tel: +44 (0) 207 467 9200
Email: blhrg@bisslancaster.com

Notes to Editors:
Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), the award-winning international corporate travel services company. Established in 1845, Hogg Robinson operates from headquarters located in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Its interests include owned or controlled corporate travel services operations in 25 key driver/growth markets throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, which are supported by a network of contracted partners. The HRG network extends to over 100 countries.

HRG’s philosophy is to focus on three differentiators – its people, its technology and its breadth of service. The company has experienced management and skilled operators together with a strong reputation for technology which it develops and owns in-house. In addition HRG is the only major travel management company to offer a real breadth of branded services. It is these three areas of focus that deliver value, cost savings, efficiency and innovation to clients around the globe.

Its portfolio of clients spans a broad range of industry sectors including but not limited to Telecommunications, Banking and Finance, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, Retail, Food Manufacturing, Media and Entertainment.