A Taiwanese tourist accused Hong Kong Dragon Airlines of discrimination for letting Hong Kong passengers switch to a Cathay Pacific flight while denying her the same arrangement after her flight was grounded by tire problems on Oct. 20. Dragon Airlines said that it had not discriminated against any passenger but that the Hong Kong passengers were more eligible for transfer because they did not have checked baggage. The carrier said it will continue its current practice of allowing passengers with no checked baggage to switch planes in the future.

The European Union and the United States have initialled a new agreement on the transfer of air passengers' data for flights from the EU to the US. If adopted by the European Parliament and EU Member States in the Council of Ministers, the new agreement on Passenger Name Records (PNR) will replace the current agreement from 2007, improving data protection whilst providing an efficient tool to fight serious transnational crime and terrorism.

The European Commission has adopted a proposal for an EU framework on security scanners. This legislation allows airports and Member States that wish to use security scanners for the screening of passengers to do so under strict operational and technical conditions. Member States and airports do not have an obligation to deploy security scanners, but if they decide to use them, they will have to comply with the operational conditions and performance standards set at European level such as or example that:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Having participated at many IFTTA Conferences and Workshops in the last years, and having enjoyed the hospitality of our colleagues and friends, we have now the honour to organize the 5^th European IFTTA Workshop on Travel and Tourism Law.

The workshop takes place from 

April 17 - 20, 2012 in Rostock, Germany. 

The main topics are: