If this morning’s reports from the BBC and other sources have it right, the ban on in-cabin laptops will probably not be extended to add additional flights from Europe into the U.S.
The current ban applies to electronic devices larger than smartphones on flights into the U.S. from airports in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, and also to nonstops from Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia into the U.K.
U.S. Homeland Security officials met this week in Brussels week with their counterparts from European Union nations to explore an expansion of this ban, leading many to anticipate that such activity was a foregone conclusion. After all, if U.S. security bureaus had credible intelligence suggesting a terrorist threat, EU countries couldn’t very well fail to take appropriate action.
It seems, however, that EU officials were unconvinced by the U.S. argument for adding new flights into the ban, possibly because they discounted the security threat or because they thought that sufficient screening measures were already in place.
As shown by a terse news release issued by Homeland Security after the meeting, the group will reconvene next week at Washington, D.C., to “further evaluate shared dangers and alternatives to protecting airline passengers, whilst ensuring the smooth operation of international aviation.”
In the meantime, the present ban continues to be the object of harsh criticism from agents of the travel industry, the press, and the general public. The latest assault on the ban came to Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Violeta Bulc, the Commissioner of Transport of the European Commission in the Kind of a May 16 letter from the International Air Transport Association.
In the past, IATA, which represents the interests of the world’s airlines, has argued that the current ban — and by extension, any extra bans — is unnecessary, ineffective, and detrimental for travelers, the travel industry, and the market at large. And during the letter of this week, IATA suggests a number of measures that could be taken to reduce the threat. One of them:
- Use Explosive Trace Detection technology at airport checkpoints
- Increase scrutiny of electronics, such as trace analysis
- Deploy behavioral hazard officers and dogs in airports
- Boost reliance on trusted-traveler applications
- Better training of screeners
While IATA’s recommendations were intended specifically to forestall any expansion of the current ban, they’re also clearly meant as an alternative to the present U.S. and U.K. limitations.
With the U.S. pushing to expand the ban, and other groups indicating it ought to be rolled back, we might be at a tipping point. Whether it’s at the direction of less restrictive or more policies that are electronic-device remains to be seen.
Reader Reality Check
Expand the ban, or prohibit it : What say you?