OREANDA-NEWS. May 22, 2014. Aeroflot received Approved Gate Check Status (AGC) from the British Home Office for Moscow-London service in Sheremetyevo airport.

Approved Gate Check Status is awarded under Section 40 of The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 in return for an audited high standard of document checking and security procedures at a port of embarkation, a good level of co-operation from the carrier and a satisfactory record in paying outstanding charges. This status is given to air carriers operating flights to the UK that meet the following requirements:

— Specially trained personnel, skilled in detecting forged and falsified documents;
— Passport and visa control by carrier’s personnel envisages mandatory inspection of documents of all passengers immediately before boarding the aircraft;
— Maintaining interaction with authorized representatives of the UK immigration service, regular exchange of information on newly identified methods of forgery and illegal migration.

Performance reviews are fed by information provided by carriers themselves, their local or nearest Immigration Liaison Manager and UK arrival ports.

Granting an air carrier AGC status is recognition of the high professionalism of its personnel in the prevention of illegal migration to the United Kingdom. The status also gives the carrier certain preferences in the application of penalties for carrying passengers with invalid documents.

AGC status is initially granted for a period of six months. If the quality documents check is maintained at a high level for a long time, the status can be assigned for a year.

AGC status for JSC "Aeroflot — Russian Airlines" will be valid until March 13, 2015. AGC Status confirms Aeroflot’s high security standards and once again underlines the company’s constant improvement of ground service, as well as company’s endeavor for excellence in every sphere of its activity and enhanced customer service quality.