Switzerland: airlines share passenger data from 1 November as citizens get new ID cards

In brief

• On 18 September 2026 the Federal Council decided to bring the Air Passenger Data Act into force on 1 November 2026 and adopted its implementing ordinance.
• The Act covers all flights from abroad into Switzerland and from Switzerland abroad operated on a commercial basis.
• Airlines transmit data three times: 48 hours and 24 hours before departure and immediately after boarding closes. Travel document data must be sent by the third transmission at the latest.
• The purpose is to fight terrorism and serious crime. Unflagged data is pseudonymised after one month and deleted after six months.
• The Passenger Information Unit will start operating on 1 February 2027.
• Passengers do not need to file anything: the data comes from the booking, and the airline must tell you about it before you complete the purchase.
• From 2 November Swiss citizens can obtain a biometric identity card. Its fee is the same as for the card without a chip.

What the Federal Council decided

The Swiss Parliament passed the Air Passenger Data Act on 21 March 2025. Once the referendum period had expired, the first provisions entered into force on 1 January 2026: those defining the scope of the Act and setting up the unit that will handle the data. The rest of the Act had to wait for implementing rules. On 18 September 2026 the Federal Council adopted the Air Passenger Data Ordinance and set 1 November 2026 as the date on which the whole Act takes effect.

The data will be processed by the national Passenger Information Unit (PIU) within fedpol. According to the Federal Council's official press release, it will start operating on 1 February 2027. The unit will be built up gradually: eight staff in limited operation in 2027 and 14 posts from 2028. The government estimates that full operation will need around 30 full-time posts, with the cost shared equally between the Confederation and the cantons.

Alongside the Act, the Federal Council amended eight other ordinances. They include the ordinance on the national part of the Schengen Information System and the SIRENE bureau, through which Switzerland exchanges alert information with other Schengen states, and the ordinance on the RIPOL police search system. The amendments allow the PIU to compare passenger data with these systems.

What this means for you. From 1 November airlines must transmit data for Swiss flights. The fedpol unit will start processing it in February 2027. For passengers, buying a ticket and boarding work exactly as before.

What data airlines transmit

The list of data is set out in Annex 1 to the Act. One condition matters: an airline only transmits what it has already collected in the normal course of business. The Act does not oblige carriers to ask passengers for anything new. The list has 19 items:

• booking reference, date of booking and ticket issue, scheduled departure date;
• the passenger's first and last names, address and contact details, including phone number and email;
• payment and billing information for the ticket;
• the full itinerary and ticket details (number, date of issue, one-way or return);
• frequent flyer programme: carrier, status and membership number;
• travel agency and the agent who made the booking;
• travel status: confirmations, check-in status, no-shows;
• seat number, code-sharing and full baggage information;
• number and names of co-travellers in the same booking;
• a separate set of data on unaccompanied minors under 18: who sees them off, who collects them and how these people are related to the child;
• API travel document data under the Foreign Nationals Act, where available;
• any change to the items listed.

As for sensitive personal data, the unit may only process biometric data that uniquely identifies a person and data on administrative and criminal proceedings or sanctions. Any other sensitive data that happens to appear in a booking must be deleted by the PIU immediately.

The data may be used for a narrow purpose: to detect, prevent and investigate terrorist offences and other serious crimes listed in Annex 2 to the Act, and to search for people wanted in connection with such crimes. It goes to federal and cantonal police and prosecution authorities and to the intelligence services.

When and how data is sent

The timing is set by Article 3 of the ordinance. Airlines send booking data to the PIU three times. API data, meaning the details from the document a person travels on, must be sent by the third transmission at the latest. In the event of a specific threat the PIU may request a further transmission. The unit confirms receipt automatically.

The formats are fixed as well: booking data goes in the international EDIFACT PNRGOV standard (version 11.1 or later) or XML PNRGOV (version 13.1 or later), and travel document data in EDIFACT PAXLST. Carriers that do not fly to a published schedule and lack this infrastructure agree a suitable format with the PIU. If a technical failure prevents transmission, the data is sent another way after consulting the unit, with data protection ensured.

The Act provides for penalties on airlines: CHF 4,000 per flight, or CHF 12,000 in serious cases. A breach is presumed when data is sent late, not for all passengers, or when passengers were not informed. Under the ordinance, penalties can only be imposed once the PIU has given the carrier the technical connection details. If the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) has already penalised the carrier for the same flight and the same breach, the PIU does not impose a penalty.

What this means for you. Airlines are financially liable for every flight, so carriers will check bookings against travel documents more carefully. Any mismatch in your name or passport number is best corrected in advance, not at the check-in desk.

How long data is kept and what passengers are told

Immediately on receipt, the data is automatically compared with police information systems, risk profiles and watch lists. If there is no match, the passenger's data is not flagged and short deadlines apply. After one month unflagged data is automatically pseudonymised: the name and other details that identify a person are masked. After six months such data is deleted.

Flagged data is kept longer, but for no more than five years from receipt, after which it is also deleted automatically. Pseudonymisation can only be lifted on a reasoned written request from an authority and with the approval of the Federal Administrative Court. In urgent cases the Director of fedpol decides, and the court's approval is requested immediately afterwards. Every such step is logged.

Passengers must be informed. Under the Act, when you book, the airline must tell you that the data goes to fedpol, on what legal basis, about your right of access, fedpol's contact details and, if data is sent abroad, the name of the foreign authority. The ordinance adds that this information must be given before the booking is completed, at least in English and in the language chosen for the booking.

The right to find out what data about you is processed is also written into the Act. For trips within the last six months, requests are handled under the Federal Act on Data Protection; for older trips, under the Federal Act on Police Information Systems. If you buy tickets through an agency or a corporate travel tool, the notice usually comes with the carrier's conditions of carriage.

Who is affected

The Act does not distinguish passengers by nationality. Data is transmitted for everyone flying from abroad into Switzerland or from Switzerland abroad: tourists, business travellers, Swiss citizens, holders of a Swiss residence permit and transit passengers on those flights. Domestic flights and trains are not covered.

For tourists almost nothing changes. There is no separate form, application or fee: the data leaves the booking system. One thing is worth checking: the first and last names on the ticket should match the passport in Latin characters, and travel document details should be entered without mistakes at online check-in. If a child is flying without an accompanying adult, tell the carrier in advance who will see them off and who will meet them, because these details are also on the list.

People living in Switzerland on a residence permit who fly often do not need to do anything either. This applies to professionals who moved under the skilled specialist route, entrepreneurs holding a business residence permit and those who chose lump-sum taxation. The conditions of these routes are described step by step in our guides for specialists, for entrepreneurs and on lump-sum taxation. If you are setting up a company, our Swiss company registration service may help.

For business travel there is one practical point: in group and corporate bookings the data includes the travel agency and the agent who issued the ticket, as well as all co-travellers in the same booking. This is standard for such systems, but it is worth checking that every traveller's name is correct beforehand.

What this means for you. Passengers have no new obligations. What matters is that the details on your ticket match the document you travel on, and that the document itself is valid.

New documents for Swiss citizens

The second change concerns identity documents for Swiss citizens, including those who have recently naturalised. According to fedpol's press release of 19 October 2026, from 2 November 2026 citizens can, if they wish, apply for the new biometric identity card. It is issued by the cantonal passport and identity card offices and by Swiss representations abroad. Like the biometric passport, the card carries a chip with a facial image and two fingerprints. The fee for the card with a chip is the same as for the current card without a chip. fedpol does not state a specific amount in these materials.

The card without a chip remains available: the Identity Documents Act requires that it can always be obtained. fedpol suggests choosing according to need: people who travel within the EU are advised to take the card with a chip, while those who only need to prove their identity in Switzerland can make do with the card without one. A passport and identity card can be ordered together. The application for the chip card follows the same process as for a passport, including an appointment to record biometric data.

Why this matters for travel: EU countries have issued only biometric identity cards since 2021. As part of the updated Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, Switzerland and the EU agreed that in the longer term a Swiss identity card will also need a chip to be used as a travel document in the EU, with an 11-year transition period. The updated agreement is not yet in force. Under the proposed rules, cards without a chip issued before the switch will remain valid for travel to the EU until they expire.

From the same date, 2 November, the "provisional passport" has been renamed the "emergency passport" in line with international terminology. Its design and security features have been updated in the style of the passport introduced in 2022; ordering procedures and requirements stay the same. Separately, Switzerland will introduce an electronic identity, the e-ID, in the first half of 2027, but it is not a travel document.

The amendment to the Identity Documents Ordinance that took effect on 1 November is also linked to passenger data. The new version of Annex 1 gives the PIU read access to the identity document database: name, date of birth, photograph, document number and other fields. The unit has no access to fingerprints. This lets the PIU confirm a passenger's identity against an official document.

What a Swiss passport offers for travel can be seen in the Swiss passport index. If a document is lost abroad or papers need to be restored for an application, our document recovery service can help, while sworn translation and other services are collected in our documents section.

Passenger data and the EES

Booking data transmission should not be confused with the European Entry/Exit System (EES). According to the European Commission, the EES has been fully operational since 10 April 2026 at the external borders of 29 European countries. It registers non-EU nationals coming for a short stay: name, travel document data, fingerprints, facial image and the date and place of entry and exit. Registration happens at the border, not through airlines.

These are two different systems with different purposes. The EES counts days of stay and replaces passport stamps, while the Swiss Air Passenger Data Act uses booking data to identify links to serious crime. We explained how the EES and the future ETIAS work in our article on Schengen border checks and in our news piece on ETIAS not yet running. Passport validity requirements at entry are covered in our report on five-year passports, and border controls inside Schengen in our news on Italy and Spain.

What is not yet known

The Act and the ordinance answer the main questions, but several details had not been officially published as of 1 November 2026:

• the list of countries and authorities to which Swiss airlines may transmit passenger data: under the ordinance fedpol keeps this list and must publish it;
• from what date the PIU will impose penalties on individual carriers: this depends on when they receive the technical connection details;
• the exact fee for the chip identity card in each canton: fedpol only states that it equals the fee for the card without a chip;
• the entry-into-force date of the updated free movement agreement with the EU and of the transition period for cards without a chip.

We will update this article when these details appear in official sources.

What to do now

You can discuss relocation, documents and travel to Switzerland in an online consultation.

How this article was prepared

This article was prepared on 1 November 2026. Sources: the Swiss Federal Act of 21 March 2025 on air passenger data in its consolidated version as of 1 November 2026 and the Air Passenger Data Ordinance of 18 September 2026, both in the official Fedlex collection of federal law; the amendment of 18 September 2026 to the Ordinance on Identity Documents for Swiss Nationals (Official Compilation, AS 2026 514); the Federal Council's official press release on the entry into force of the Air Passenger Data Act; fedpol's press release of 19 October 2026 on the biometric identity card and the emergency passport, fedpol's current projects page and its FAQ on the biometric identity card; the European Commission's page on the Entry/Exit System. This article does not replace legal advice on your situation.