Korea Times (October 1)
A combination of Japan’s Obon holidays and a harvest festival, Korea’s Chuseok break has begun and “a record number of travelers flocked to Incheon International Airport on the first day.” On Sunday, 114,746 passengers used the airport to depart, but the new record is expected to be broken again during the remainder of the 10-day Chuseok holiday season. Flights to Japan are especially popular with Korean Air reporting that “99 percent of its tickets to Japan have been booked,” while flights on low-cost carriers were snapped up long ago.
Chicago Tribune (March 11)
“No one steals and uses someone else’s passport for legitimate reasons. Only those who are inclined to violate the law and want to get away with it are given to this practice.” The role played by travelers with stolen passports on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight remains unclear. What is perfectly clear is that authorities should “take the trouble to verify the identity of every person” by availing themselves of Interpol’s passport database. Currently, only a few countries make frequent use of this tool. Regrettably, more than one billion boardings went unscreened for misuse of lost/stolen passports last year.
Tags: Authorities, Boardings, Flight, Identity, Interpol, Law, Legitimate, Malaysia Airlines, Passports, Stolen, Travelers, Unscreened, Verify
