Turkish Airlines - one of nine airlines on the U.S. electronics ban
I always wonder when I cross the TSA security line why I must take off of my shoes and belt, or why I cannot bring a drink across the sacred divide from the outside to the gate of my flight. Things just got a little bit more in an uproar when the U.S. government put a ban on electronics brought on flights to the U.S. from a few select nations.
The ban is airline specific and has to do with regions in the Middle East, Gulf, and North Africa, meaning Arab nations who might be sought after by ISIS terrorists. Ten airports and nine airlines made the list. The airlines affected are : Royal Jordanian, Egypt Air, Turkish Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways. There are around 50 flights a day coming into the U.S. on the mentioned airlines.
As a business traveler, this will take away precious time needed to work on board a flight. Surely I’m not alone wanting to maximize a long haul flight ten by getting a bit of business done.
For parents it involves keeping children occupied on long flights. I can guarantee you that some toddlers will show there rebellious nature in the form of a temper tantrum much to the dismay of fellow passengers, without their tablets and game devices.
According to the New York Times, the ban is over ISIS threats. The report states, “Intelligence showing that the Islamic State is developing a bomb hidden in portable electronics spurred the United States and Britain on Tuesday to bar passengers from airports in a total of 10 Muslim-majority countries from carrying laptop computers, w and other devices larger than a cellphone aboard direct inbound flights, two senior American counter-terrorism officials said.”
Two additional American officials said the explosives were designed to be hidden in laptop batteries. All four spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive information.
Although, there are no hard facts to reflect that a specific threat of an imminent attack is coming, the Trump administration clearly is not taking this likely.
Scary times indeed. The alert reflects concerns that the Islamic State is ready — or soon will be — to launch new capabilities against the West.
On the other hand, some news outlets claim that signaling out carriers from the Middle East, and from all Arab nations is simply posturing to keep angry U.S. carriers placated as foreign airlines create more lower cost transatlantic flights.
As ambiguity exists, there will also be a massive retraining of TSA agents.
Surely, the ban is a nuisance to anyone doing business in the Gulf or simply flying on one of the signaled out airfares. It should be noted many of these airlines including Emirates, Ethiad, Qatar and Turkish are constantly up for “best airline” awards.
Even the airlines are uncertain about the lack of communication with Homeland Security.
Officials said passengers still could carry cellphones and other small devices into the airplane’s cabin, while larger items like laptops would have to be stowed with checked luggage.
The joy of travel just got a little bit more complicated.