US bans electronic carry-ons for Mideast flights

Bloomberg

Middle Eastern airlines came under renewed pressure from President Donald Trump after the federal government barred passengers from carrying large electronic
devices onto US-bound flights for security reasons.
The ban concerns services from cities including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Cairo and Istanbul, and could impact about 50 flights a day, with analysts predicting check-in delays as airports grapple with breaches of the new rules and a possible drop in occupancy levels where people can take alternative routes.
Turkish Airlines and the three leading Persian Gulf operators, led by Emirates, have most to lose since they rely on transfer passengers who may need access to laptops and other devices for business reasons and could easily travel via hubs such as Frankfurt and
London. No US carriers fly to the
affected cities.
The measures come weeks after Trump sought to stop most citizens of seven predominantly Muslim Middle Eastern and African countries from entering the U.S. in steps that are currently being challenged in court. They also coincide with attempts by American carriers to have the government stem access to the U.S. for Persian Gulf rivals they say have benefited from illegal state aid.
“This is not right,” Turkish Transportation Minister Ahmet Arslan said in Ankara, adding that the U.S. shouldn’t conflate security standards at Istanbul’s Ataturk hub with those at much smaller terminals. Turkey is concerned that the restrictions will impact inflight comfort and hurt passengers numbers, and is seeking to have them “lifted or eased,” he said.

Games Consoles
The US Department of Homeland Security issued the directive at 3 a.m. New York time Tuesday to carriers from Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Laptops, tablets, games consoles and portable DVD players are among items that will have to go in the hold, according to officials who said the rules stem from “evaluated intelligence.”
Such electronic devices have been implicated in previous attacks on airlines, one official said, pointing to a February 2016 flight by Somali-owned Daallo Airlines in which a passenger hid a bomb in a laptop. Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, said in an email that he has been briefed on the situation and that the steps are “both necessary and proportional to the threat.”
Britain may follow suit with a similar ban, the Daily Telegraph reported, citing security officials. The UK Department for Transport declined to comment.
Still, the measures may do no more than deflect the terrorist threat since people will still be able to fly from the Middle East via hubs such as Frankfurt, where there are no limits on in-cabin devices, to target U.S. services, said Mark Martin, an aviation consultant in Dubai. “When it comes to aviation, there’s a very thin line between paranoia and precaution,” he added.

Delays Likely
The biggest immediate impact may be on check-in times. While toiletries and other items found to exceed limits on liquids that may be carried through security barriers are usually thrown away, expensive laptops would need to be transferred to the hold or somehow stored at the airport for collection later.
“Nobody will be willing to part from their laptop or tablet on a long-haul flight, especially if you’ve got sensitive data” Martin said. “But if you want to go to the US you have to comply with the laws.”
For many people that will mean putting up with hours without their laptop rather switching to a routing that could take far longer, though where travel times and prices are similar the prospect of so much time without a personal device could be enough to cost an airline a booking.
Turkish Air and Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have all grabbed a major share of the lucrative market for travel from the Americas and Europe to the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australia by developing their home bases into huge transfer hubs.

Vulnerable
That strategy has helped transform Emirates — which serves 12 US cities — into the world’s biggest airline on international routes. Yet with 80% of passengers changing flights rather than entering Dubai, it remains vulnerable to factors that could prompt people to travel via Europe with carriers such as British Airways, Deutsche Lufthansa AG or Air France-KLM Group.
Etihad said that the situation is further complicated by the fact that people transiting its Abu Dhabi hub will need to stow their devices at their airport of origin, since they’ll have no access to checked bags in the Gulf. The comments also suggest that the airport’s U.S. border checks, unique for the Middle East, won’t make it exempt from the new restrictions.
The Trump measure also comes at a particularly tough time for Mideast carriers, with business travel to the Gulf still depressed by the low oil price and demand for tourist flights to Turkey hurt by a spate of terrorist attacks.
Trump said on February 9 that he planned to help US airlines compete with foreign carriers unfairly aided by their governments. Delta Air Lines Inc., United Continental Holdings Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. have been prodding the government for two years to act on claims that $50 billion in state support had enabled the growth of Mideast carriers.

Britain bans laptops on
flights from 6 countries

AP

Britain’s government has banned electronic devices in the carry-on bags of passengers traveling to the UK from six countries, following closely on a similar ban imposed by the United States.
The government says in a statement that Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting on aviation security earlier Tuesday in which it was agreed that new aviation security measures on all inbound direct flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. The statement says that Britain has been in touch with the Americans to fully understand their position.
Under the new arrangements, passengers on the flights “will not be allowed to take any phones, laptops or tablets larger than a normal sized mobile or smart phone,” into the cabin.