BKA: 548 Million Passenger Data Records Searched – 1525 Suspects Arrested
Passenger data analysis success rate remains low. In 2024, cases pursued were just under 90,000, with 1525 arrests from 548 million records.
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German authorities are increasingly scrutinizing air travel. In 2024, the Federal Criminal Police Office's (BKA) Passenger Name Record (PNR) central unit, or the Passenger Name Record Information System, recorded and processed a total of almost 548 million so-called Passenger Name Records (PNR). In 2023, there were still 453.7 million passenger data records, representing an increase of around 21 percent within one year. The number of affected air passengers simultaneously rose from 125.7 to 153.7 million. Multiple entries of data records per flight movement and passenger are possible.
The federal government revealed the current figures in a published answer to a request from the Left Party parliamentary group in the Bundestag. The BKA and other law enforcement agencies compare data from flights within the EU and to third countries with police wanted notices and patterns, which are intended to enable early detection of terrorist and serious criminal air travelers. However, according to the lead Interior Ministry, the yield remains comparatively low.
According to the information provided, there were 207,409 operations generated by technical hits when comparing with databases and 6831 when scanning with patterns. Investigators technically reviewed all technical hits. The number of cases positively assessed and forwarded to the responsible authorities, such as the Federal Customs Administration and the Federal Police was 89,982. A total of 1525 arrests resulted from these "PNR extractions". Of these, 616 were on flights within the EU. Given the millions of data records processed, this results in a very low success rate in the lowest per mille range concerning the number of arrests per transmitted PNR record. The results in previous years were no better.
467 Million Data Records Deleted
The measures taken by the Federal Police and Customs were based on passenger data referrals where the passenger encountered was identical to the person wanted. The underlying warrants for wanted persons that led to intervention included, in addition to arrests last year, 2233 cases of residence investigation, 2363 of police observation or covert surveillance, 3908 of targeted open surveillance, and 397 of denial of entry. There is no evaluation of the implemented measures for the 67,059 PNR extractions due to object searches.
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As of October 10, 2025, according to the executive, 391 air transport companies were connected to the PNR information system. Data from approximately 90 percent of the total air passenger volume in Germany was processed. The operating expenses in 2024, excluding personnel costs, were 9.44 million euros for technical provision by the Federal Office of Administration (BVA) and 6,420 euros for the central unit at the BKA. In addition, there were 93 positions at the police authority and 134 at the BVA. In 2022, the Wiesbaden Administrative Court prohibited the BKA from conducting random aerial surveillance, but this has hardly any practical impact. However, in 2024, around 467 million data records were automatically deleted after reaching the 6-month retention period, and 313,795 were depersonalized.
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