Ensuring Passenger Privacy from Booking to Boarding

Today’s travel experience is powered by data—and your passengers know it. From the moment they book a flight to the moment they board (and beyond), airlines are collecting, processing, and storing massive volumes of personal data. Preferences, passports, payment info, biometrics, behavioral profiles—it’s all part of delivering a seamless, secure, and personalized journey.

But with data comes responsibility. And risk.

As regulations tighten and cyber threats grow more sophisticated, airlines need to think differently about data protection. Privacy can’t be confined to a single team or phase of the customer journey—it needs to be embedded from takeoff to touchdown.

Here’s how to secure every step of the passenger experience.

Privacy Begins at Booking

It all starts with the reservation. Whether through a mobile app, third-party platform, or loyalty portal, the booking process is a goldmine of sensitive passenger data. Full names, emails, payment information, travel history—it’s all in play.

But many booking systems are fragmented, outdated, or integrated with third-party partners lacking sufficient data safeguards. That’s a risk.

How BigID helps: Airlines discover and classify sensitive data across all booking channels—structured or unstructured, legacy or cloud—so you know exactly what you’re collecting and where it’s going. With automated data mapping and real-time inventorying, you can ensure compliance with consent requirements and data minimization principles right from the start.

The Turbulent Global Privacy Landscape

As airlines expand their operations and digital capabilities, they’re increasingly caught in the crosswinds of global privacy regulation. What was once a concern limited to passenger manifest confidentiality is now a complex, high-stakes challenge that spans biometric data, AI decisioning, and cross-border transfers.

Every stage of the passenger journey—from booking systems to loyalty programs—must now meet a growing set of privacy obligations. And with new laws emerging alongside tighter enforcement, the regulatory runway is constantly shifting.

Here’s a snapshot of key regulations shaping airline data governance today:

• GDPR (EU): Purpose limitation, consent, DSARs, AI explainability
• CPRA (California): Expanded consumer rights, data sharing limits
• PIPL (China): Data localization, consent, cross-border transfer approval
• LGPD (Brazil), PDPA (Thailand), PDPL (Saudi Arabia): Consent, accountability, and localization requirements

The result? Rising stakes for data governance—and steeper consequences for non-compliance.

BigID simplifies global compliance with automated mapping, policy enforcement, and regulatory reporting tailored to each region. Whether you’re flying domestically or across borders, your data practices will be in lockstep with the laws that govern them.

End-to-End Data Intelligence for Airlines with BigID

BigID is the industry leading provider for data privacy, security, compliance, and AI data management— giving organizations greater visibility into all their enterprise data, no matter where it lives.

With BigID airlines get:

• ML-powered discovery and classification of structured and unstructured passenger data
• Automated mapping of data flows across booking, check-in, in-flight systems, and loyalty programs
• Consent and DSAR workflows that scale with growing customer expectations
• AI risk assessments to support compliance with the EU AI Act
• Retention, remediation, and data minimization policies that reduce exposure and cost

With BigID, airlines can future-proof their data practices, reduce risk, and deliver secure, compliant experiences from booking to boarding—and beyond.

Ready to secure the full journey? Book a 1:1 demo with our experts today.

Author

Alexis Porter

Content Marketing Manager

Alexis serves as Content Marketing Manager for industry leading DSPM provider, BigID. She specializes in helping tech startups craft and hone their voice— to tell more compelling stories that resonate with diverse audiences. She holds a bachelors degree in Professional Writing and a Master’s degree in Marketing Communication from the University of Denver. Alexis is based out of Orlando, FL.