Passengers to be hit with airport 'tax'

All passengers travelling through Kuwait International Airport are to be charged an additional fee to pay for heightened security measures at the airport.

Travellers will have to shell out a ‘security fee’ of between 75 cents and $1.25 every time they either arrive at or depart from the airport, national daily Kuwait Times reported on Monday quoting local media, without specifying when the charge will come into effect.

The money, which will be collected by the airlines, will go towards the cost of a new $1 million security system Kuwait's Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA) is installing at the airport, which can currently handle six million passengers a year.

The systems will allow data about passengers and luggage to be made available to staff at a traveller’s destination airport as soon as a boarding pass is issued at the airport the person sets out from.

PACA has already signed a seven-year contract with an undisclosed company to provide the service and the equipment required for the security system is being prepared at the moment.

The measures being introduced by PACA are in line with passenger information sharing systems being installed at airports around the world following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The US has been pushing for countries to implement these systems in an effort to better screen passengers, which the country says is important in its war on terrorism.