US and Europe to hold talks on broadening airline laptop ban

Bloomberg

US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly will meet with European Commission officials in Brussels next week to discuss prohibiting passengers bound for America from carrying laptops and other electronic devices in airliner cabins.
Kelly talked with European commissioners Dimitris Avramopoulos and Violeta Bulc. Even though European airports and airlines are preparing for a ban, no action has been announced as officials continue their talks.
Avramopoulos told Kelly that the threat affects the EU and the US in the same way and so the response should be made in common, according to a summary of the conversation provided by a European Commission official. Avramopoulos and Bulc wrote to Kelly earlier in the week to seek more collaboration.
The US Homeland Security department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment after the call. There won’t be any announcement on US plans, DHS spokeswoman Jenny Burke said.
Extending electronics restrictions — now in place for travel from some Middle Eastern and African airports — to Europe would disrupt one of the world’s busiest and most lucrative travel markets just ahead of the peak summer tourism season. It could also prevent business passengers’ ability to work on their laptops on long-haul routes across the Atlantic.
Airline and travel-industry groups are quietly expressing concern about the plan under consideration by US security
authorities to broaden the ban.
More than 3,000 flights are expected to arrive in the US from the European Union each week this summer. The US is the world’s second-largest market for spending on business travel, following China, according to the GBTA. Global spending for business travel topped $1.3 trillion and is projected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2020, the group said.
Earlier this week, European Commission officials took the unusual step of writing to Kelly and US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao urging them to share information about expanded security actions on electronics.
Kelly met in Washington with US airline officials to discuss details of a possible expansion. US airlines are resigned that a broadened ban on electronics will occur at some point, one industry official said. The person wasn’t authorized to speak about the ongoing talks with government and asked not to be identified.
US airlines have been pushing alternative solutions they believe will address
security concerns while sidestepping measures that would block business travelers from working on laptops and prevent other fliers from viewing movies or reading books on tablets

Alternative Measures
Airlines have suggested measures such as asking passengers to turn on their electronic devices and subjecting all devices to explosive-detection swabs. Another strategy might be to use CT X-ray technology, which uses scores of X-ray images from multiple vantage points to provide a higher definition image, the person said. CT is used for checked bags but isn’t available at checkpoints for carry-on luggage. At the same time, the airlines will do whatever is necessary to address any legitimate security threat, the industry official said.
Finding a way to expand trusted-traveler programs, such as the Transportation Security Administration PreCheck, may also be a solution, McCormick of the GBTA said. Passengers who agree to be screened for terrorist ties now get expedited screening at US airports, but the program isn’t recognized by airport security workers in other countries.
DHS Secretary Kelly and Representative John Katko, a New York Republican who is chairman of the House Transportation Security Subcommittee, have said in recent weeks that the initial measures were prompted by intelligence that terrorist groups have gotten better at concealing explosives in electronic devices. A bomb installed in a laptop or tablet may not be detectable by existing X-ray machines at security checkpoints.
Terrorist Groups
The current laptop ban on flights from eight countries in the Middle East and Africa doesn’t apply to travel that originates in the US to those countries.
Some carriers serving those routes have begun loaning equipment to premium customers. Business-class travelers on Qatar Airways hand over their laptops at the gate for storage in the hold and receive specially purchased computers. Etihad Airways PJSCplanned to provide Apple Inc. iPads, according to a March announcement.
Meanwhile, US and European airlines are preparing for an anticipated widening of the ban.
Air France-KLM Group and Deutsche Lufthansa AG say they’re making preparations for the moratorium on devices on flights from Europe, including tablets and games consoles. The European Commission has written to President Donald Trump’s administration to urge cooperation on any new measures.
“We are in contact with our partners and the authorities, and we’re preparing for the possibility,” Air France spokeswoman Ulli Gendrot said by phone.
Lufthansa has been working internally on different scenarios for responding to any extension of the ban, spokesman Helmut Tolksdorf said. Both companies have close ties to major U.S. operators, with Air France-KLM allied to Delta Air Lines Inc. and Lufthansa partnered with United Continental Holdings Inc.
US airlines also have been discussing a potential expansion of the ban with officials at DHS and TSA for several weeks, according to one of the U.S. people briefed on the talks.