Upvote:3
It depends.
Traditionally, and this is still the case in many countries, no. Airlines used to just check requirements, and they didn’t transmit anything to anyone.
However, over the last couple of decades, this has changed a lot, and many counties require information from airlines either for incoming passengers or exiting passengers, or both.
This takes the form of API (advance passenger information), also known under a variety of different names in different places.
If an airline asks for your passport info before they let you check-in, it’s for the purpose of transferring it to either the destination or origin country.
Most notably:
I believe the EU (or is it the Schengen area?) already has a similar system for incoming passengers. Other countries already have or plan to have the same.