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Statement of Need: Current regulations do not provide CBP the capability to assess potential threats posed by private aircraft entering and departing the United States. Private aircraft currently are not required to electronically transmit to CBP advance notice of arrival through an approved electronic data interchange system. In addition, private aircraft are not currently required to electronically transmit identifying information for all individuals onboard the aircraft (manifest data) before arriving in or departing from the United States. The existing regulations lack clarity in the procedures for requesting permission to land at landing rights airports. Private aircraft are also currently not required to obtain clearance or provide notice of departure prior to departing the United States. To adequately and accurately assess potential threats posed by private aircraft entering and departing the United States, CBP needs sufficient and timely information about the impending arrival or departure of a private aircraft, the passengers and crew onboard, and clear procedures regarding landing rights and departure clearance. Without these tools, CBP does not currently have the capability to perform risk assessments on passengers traveling on private aircraft. Under this rule, CBP would receive advance electronic information of notice of arrival combined with passenger manifest data for those aboard private aircraft that arrive in and depart from the United States. This would provide critical information in a sufficient time to fully pre-screen information on all individuals intending to travel onboard private aircraft to or from the United States. Moreover, these changes would enable CBP to minimize potential threats posed by private aircraft by identifying high-risk individuals and aircraft and allowing CBP to coordinate with airport personnel and domestic or foreign government authorities to take appropriate action when warranted by a threat. This rule serves to provide the nation, private aircraft operators, and the international traveling public, additional security from the threat of terrorism and enhance CBP’s ability to carry out its border enforcement mission.

Alternatives: This proposed rule is not economically significant under Executive Order 12866. Therefore, CBP did not consider regulatory alternatives.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits: Currently, pilots of private aircraft must submit information regarding themselves, their aircraft, and any passengers prior to arrival into the United States from a foreign airport. Depending on the location of the foreign airport, the pilot provides the arrival information 1 hour prior to crossing the U.S. coastline or border (areas south of the United States) or during the flight (other areas). The information that would now be required for the pilot is similar to what is already required; it would now need to be submitted earlier (60 minutes prior to departure). The information that would now be required for passengers is more extensive that what is currently required and would also have to be submitted earlier. No notice of departure information is currently required for private aircraft departing the United States for a foreign airport. CBP estimates that 138,559 private aircraft landed in the United States in 2006 based on current notice of arrival data. These aircraft collectively carried 455,324 passengers; including the 138,559 pilots of the aircraft, this totals 593,883 individuals arriving in the United States aboard private aircraft. CBP estimates that approximately two-thirds are U.S. citizens and the remaining one-third is comprosed of non-U.S. citizens. CBP does not currently compile data for departures, as there are currently no requirements for private aircraft departing the United States. For this analysis, we assume that the number of departures is the same as the number of arrivals. Thus, we estimate that 140,000 private aircraft arrivals and 140,000 departures will be affected annually as a result of the rule. While the current data elements for pilots are very similar to the proposed requirements, the data elements for passengers are more extensive. Based on the current information collected and accounting for proposed changes in the data elements, CBP estimates that one submission, which includes the arrival information and the passenger manifest data, will require 15 minutes of time (0.25 hours) to complete. Currently, private aircraft arriving from areas south of the United States must provide advance notice of arrival at least 1 hour before crossing the U.S. coastline or border. There are no such timing requirements for other areas. Thus, some pilots and their passengers may decide that in order to comply with the new requirements, including submitting information through eAPIS and waiting for a response from CBP, they must convene at the airport earlier than they customarily would. To estimate the costs associated with the time required to input data into eAPIS, we use the value of an hour of time as reported in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) document on critical values, $28.60. This represents a weighted cost for business and leisure travelers in the air environment. The cost to submit advance notice of arrival data through eAPIS would be approximately $1 million (140,000 arrivals * 0.25 hours * $28.60 per hour). Similarly, costs to submit advance notice of departure data would be $1 million, for a total cost to submit the required data elements of $2 million annually. To estimate the costs of arriving earlier than customary, we again use the value of time of $28.60 per hour. As noted previously, we assume that 301,000 pilots and passengers may choose to arrive 0.25 hours earlier than customary. This would result in a cost of approximately $2 million for arrivals and $2 million for departures, a total of $4 million annually (301,000 individuals * 0.25 hours * $28.60 per hour * 2). Thus, the total annual cost of the proposed rule is expected to be $6 million. Over 10 years, this would total a present value cost of $47 million at a 7 percent discount rate ($55 million at a 3 percent discount rate). As noted previously, the benefit of this proposed rule is enabling CBP to identify high-risk individuals and aircraft prior to their arrival in the United States, thus allowing CBP to coordinate with airport personnel and government authorities to take the action warranted by the threat. CBP would receive more information earlier to better assess risks of specific flights to national security and to take appropriate action in order to prevent security threats.