Amendments to the Secure Air Travel Regulations (SATR)
Enabling Act
Secure Air Travel Act (SATA)
Description
Enhancements to the Passenger Protect Program were recently implemented to transition towards a government-controlled centralized screening model of passengers travelling by air to, from and/or within Canada against the Secure Air Travel Act (SATA) List. This also included the creation of the Canadian Travel Number (CTN) to prevent delays at the airport by helping to distinguish legitimate travellers who have the same, or similar name, as someone on the SATA list.
During the implementation of these enhancements, the need to make minor adjustments to the regulatory design were identified. At the same time, the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had significant impacts on air carriers, including delaying their implementation of those enhancements. While exploring solutions to these issues, the Government of Canada will update the regulations to make sure it can support traveller modernization initiatives moving forward.
Accordingly, amendments to the Secure Air Travel Regulations (SATR) are being pursued as follows:
- Ensure that the Regulations apply to relevant commercial passenger-carrying flights to, from or within Canada.
- Remove the requirement for air carriers to retransmit passenger data at check-in if there is no change to the information already provided.
- Clarify air carriers’ duty to provide information during an outage as it pertains to changes in passenger information.
- Extend the period of time that air carriers can have access to and use the SATA List to conduct passenger screening for flights to, from and/or within Canada to provide them with more time and flexibility to onboard to the government-controlled centralized screening system.
- Offer more options to travellers and the industry to meet pre-aircraft boarding identity verification requirements under SATR with a view to ensure that Canada’s PPP remains current and adaptable to innovative approaches for identity management across the air travel continuum.
Potential impacts on Canadians, including businesses
The amendments will primarily impact commercial air carriers that operate flights to, from and/or within Canada and are already part of the Passenger Protect Program. This includes the third party service providers that those airlines rely on for passenger data processing technology.
A number of commercial air carriers operating passenger-carrying flights may also be impacted by the inclusion of certain flights in the scope of application of SATR.
Canadians, including businesses, will benefit from the amendments as they will support traveller modernization initiatives offering more options for travellers and the industry in the future.
Regulatory cooperation efforts (domestic and international)
The amendments will better align Canada’s Passenger Protect Program requirements with international industry standards for data transmission of passenger information as well as the United States’ Transportation Security Administration’s Secure Flight Program.
Consultations
Preliminary discussions with key commercial air carriers and third party service providers of passenger data processing technology for affected airlines have confirmed the need to amend the regulations to reduce compliance burden, and to clarify air carriers’ duty to provide information during an outage as it pertains to changes to passenger information.
Consultations with affected stakeholders in the air transportation industry will be conducted during the summer of 2021. The proposed regulations will also be pre-published in the Canadian Gazette Part 1 for broader stakeholder consultation in the fall of 2021.
Further information
N/A
Departmental contact information
Steve Tharakan
Director
Passenger Protect Office
National Security Policy Directorate
National and Cyber Security Branch
Telephone: 613-949-7360
Email: steve.tharakan@ps-sp.gc.ca
Date the regulatory initiative was first included in the Forward Regulatory Plan
June 2021
For more information
- Government-wide Administrative Burden Baseline counts
- Government-Wide Forward Regulatory Plans
- The Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Management
- The Red Tape Reduction Action Plan
- The Canada–United States Regulatory Cooperation Council
To learn about upcoming or ongoing consultations on proposed federal regulations, visit the Canada Gazette and Consulting with Canadians websites
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