US airlines protest tough screening

AMERICA'S airline industry is protesting against its government's tough screening of foreign visitors passing through American airports, which it says will cost it more than $130m (£78m) a year.

The US Air Transport Association, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, says that the new security measures requiring many passengers to hold US visas even if only passing through its airports, are driving many to seek alternative routes on non-US airlines.

Only 27 countries, mainly European ones including the UK, are exempt from US visa requirements. Until August, nationals from other countries were allowed to land in the United States in transit without a visa.

The industry group, in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, said that the six largest American airlines carried 300,000 foreign passengers through US airports in the past year.

The Association said many of its members' international customers may switch to foreign-carriers to avoid the delays and costs associated with having to get visas days or even weeks before their departure.

The measure came at a time when airlines were experiencing 'a severe, continued financial downturn', the Association said.

Last month, the airline industry persuaded the State Department to postpone a requirement that travellers from several countries whose residents do not need visas to enter the United States have hi-tech, machine-readable passports.