The USA has announced a ban on electronics in carry-on luggage from flights to the USA originating from 8 countries. This will impact travellers across the globe, including my home in India. The UK decided to follow on this ban as well, and currently the following details are available about this ban.
As per the BBC, the ban is only on Laptops in cabin baggage, and not other electronic devices, and it affects flights originating from the following 6 countries:
- Turkey
- Lebanon
- Jordan
- Egypt
- Tunisia
- Saudi Arabia
Update: The ban is on all electronic devices more than 16cm in length, 9.3cm in width, or 1.5cm depth.
The ban impacts all carriers operating on these markets. As per the BBC again, the following airlines will be impacted:
- British Airways
- EasyJet
- Jet2.com
- Monarch
- Thomas Cook
- Thomson
- Turkish Airlines
- Pegasus Airways
- Atlas-Global Airlines
- Middle East Airlines
- Egyptair
- Royal Jordanian,
- Tunis Air
- Saudia
This is really unfortunate, and a hell lot of difficult to implement. At least the scope of this ban is limited at this moment as compared to the more draconian USA version. So we await further details. But like I said before, Brace for Impact.
P.S. It seems the British Ban is applicable immediately.
I just don’t see how this ban is remotely going to make us safer. If these devices could be a threat, then surely the ban should apply to every country. Furthermore, people can travel overland to these nations, so how does this really make us safer. It is further slap in the face for these countries as frankly it would make me less likely to visit if I thought I was going to be bored rigid during my flight not being able to access all the fun things I would normally do on my IPAD.
We should be grateful for small mercies and the good news here is that the UK ban does not include Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad, so the impact should be somewhat softer. Also, if originating or connecting there and flying to the USA, you can look into rerouting via UK.