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Carnival Corp. partners with INTERPOL for advanced global security screening

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Chris Malo, left, head of global maritime security for Carnival Corp., and Mick O'Connell of INTERPOL, shake hands following a vote at INTERPOL's General Assembly
Carnival Corp. & plc becomes the first maritime company to partner with INTERPOL for advanced security screening across its global operations.

Included are 10 brands and 101 ships that annually carry nearly 11m passengers, or about half the global cruise market, to more than 700 ports around the world.

Carnival Corp. received approval today to integrate its global passenger check-in process with INTERPOL'S I-Checkit system, a secure, real-time method for screening travel document information against INTERPOL's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database, containing over 69m records from 175 countries.

The approval resulted from a resolution vote held today in Bali, Indonesia, at INTERPOL'S General Assembly, the annual meeting of 190 member countries that comprise the world's largest international police organization.

The news follows a three-month I-Checkit pilot program on four Princess Cruises ships. The trial included 34,000 travel documents that were successfully checked against the SLTD database to demonstrate the system's ability to enhance security for the global cruise industry.

The full results of the pilot program were presented to INTERPOL's General Assembly prior to its member countries passing an official resolution that enables Carnival Corp. to expand its I-Checkit deployment across its cruise brands in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

Carnival and INTERPOL can now work together on an expanded partnership agreement to cover a phased rollout of the I-Checkit system across the brands—Princess, Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (UK) and P&O Cruises Australia.

'Partnering with INTERPOL enables us to seamlessly enhance security across our global fleet while also maintaining our commitment to providing our guests with a great vacation experience. This is another important step for our company and industry as we continue taking proactive measures to enhance the safety and security of our passengers and crew members,' said Bill Burke, chief maritime officer for Carnival Corp. and retired US Navy vice admiral.

As Carnival expands I-Checkit globally, the company's brands will be able to automatically query the SLTD database before and during the boarding process to see if any passenger travel documents have been reported lost or stolen. To ensure privacy and security, no personal data is accessed or transmitted in this process.

'I-Checkit's initiative with Carnival Corporation offers an additional layer of safety in the travel sector by creating an international standard for security screening,' according to Michael O'Connell, director of INTERPOL's operational support and analysis directorate and head of the I-Checkit program.