Miami-based PASS Consulting Corporation has worked closely with the cruise industry and the US officials to develop an automated solution that will address the requirements of a new ruling.

Published: 02 Oct 2005

Miami-based PASS Consulting Corporation has worked closely with the cruise industry and the US officials to develop an automated solution that will address the requirements of a new ruling.

The new and more rigid U.S. government-mandated cruise ruling, which
goes into effect from 4 October, is a consequence of the US laws passed
requiring detailed recording and evaluation of all incoming and outgoing
travel.

PASS Consulting stated that PASS' XX/1 Advanced Passenger Information
System (APIS) will successfully
manage passenger and crew reporting and improve risk management
procedures. The new PASS system streamlines the entry and management of
data required for the electronic Notice of Arrivals and Departures
(eNOAD).

"The system increases the speed, ease of access and integration into
existing cruise line passenger reporting systems. Other options to
comply with the new laws include manual completion of Web-based pages or
use of other form creation software, which require more time and have
less quality control abilities due to the need to enter each passenger
and crew member individually rather than to upload that data from
internal files," said the company in a statement.

Further it stated: "As PASS' newest XX/1 customer, Costa Cruises will
benefit from the enhanced security, reliability and speed of passenger
tracking. This will result in superior service and safety for Costa
Cruises and their passengers while efficiently and accurately fulfilling
the government's requirements."

On the requirement of a reliable APIS/eNOAD system, Pragmatic Systems
International Corporation, a travel technology consultant that
specialises in governmental law issues, said that there are numerous
advantages of having an APIS system like that of PASS, and the results
can be very significant for
both the cruise line and the passenger.

"The PASS XX/1 APIS/eNOAD sets a new standard for passenger reporting
and for streamlining edit validation which is important to comply with
the new law," said Michael Strauss, chief executive officer, PASS
Consulting.

"We see that this solution fills the immediate need in the US market and
can be easily adapted to handle other countries if needed in the future.
We believe that Costa Cruises will benefit significantly from the
dynamic features of this new offering and will give them a competitive
advantage," said Strauss.