Airlines to be charged Advance Passenger Information System fee

The Department of Immigration has said that airlines will be charged a fee for the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS).

Sun Online understands that it has been decided to charge $2 per passenger or an annual fee from airlines following the implementation of the APIS. This fee will be charged by the provider of the program for this system, Singaporean company Arinc.

Controller of Immigration Dr Mohamed Ali said that it had been decided to charge a specific amount from airlines as APIS. He however did not mention the exact amount.

Dr Mohamed Ali said that efforts regarding the instalment of the APIS in the Maldives are under way by a Singaporean company.

He said that the system will be ready to use later this month.

“Even though the system is established, we don’t know which system of the Immigration Department it should be integrated with. It’s not possible to connect it to Nexbis system. So we have to use it separately,” he said.

The system will facilitate communication of passenger information from airlines to the system before planes land in the Maldives.