Thailand ramps up health screening of international arrivals

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AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said the APPS allows customs officials, airport and airline staff and immigration police to obtain the profiles of passengers from their countries of origin.

Airports of Thailand (AoT) has revealed that authorities are repurposing the Advance Passenger Processing System (APPS), to check incoming air passengers’ health documentation ahead of their arrival, as the country is set to reopen to tourism starting next month.



AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said the APPS allows customs officials, airport and airline staff and immigration police to obtain the profiles of passengers from their countries of origin. They are able to check if passengers are blacklisted or banned from leaving a country.


He said the system will ramp up the health screening of international arrivals and reinforce its safeguards against the spread of COVID-19, as the country gradually reopens its borders and restores the tourism sector. The AoT expects passenger traffic across the six airports it supervises nationwide to pick up from next month when key tourism destinations open their doors again.



According to the AoT, the APPS meets global standards in its capability to verify the authenticity of vaccination certificates. Authorities share passenger information and passengers, whose profiles are clean, will be able to pass immigration checks faster. (NNT)



The system will ramp up the health screening of international arrivals and reinforce its safeguards against the spread of COVID-19, as the country gradually reopens its borders and restores the tourism sector, said Mr. Nitinai.