The European Parliament has approved a new directive regulating the use of passenger name record (PNR) data in the EU.
The directive was passed after five years of discussions held between European governments and MEPs,
It enables the transfer of primary passenger data, provided during booking a flight in the EU, to recognise patterns of suspicious behaviour.
Under the deal, passenger information will be collected on all flights within, to and from the EU, and used by highly-trained analysts.
British ECR MEP Timothy Kirkhope said: "We have adopted an important new tool for fighting terrorists and traffickers.
"By collecting, sharing and analysing PNR information our intelligence agencies can detect patterns of suspicious behaviour to be followed up.
"PNR is not a silver bullet, but countries that have national PNR systems have shown time and again that it is highly effective."
According to the European Parliament, the directive will help identify radicalised foreign fighters returning from Syria.
Timothy Kirkhope added: "EU governments must now get on with implementing this agreement. We cannot afford to waste any more time in developing a robust response to the terrorist threat."
The directive was initially rejected by the civil liberties committee of the European Parliament. The text was finally approved by 461 votes to 179, with nine abstentions.
The US and the UK have already started using PNR to identify terrorist activity, as well as human and drug trafficking.
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