Potential New Rules on Carrying Electronic Devices Aboard Flights
(Last updated 1:oo p.m. PDT, Wednesday, August 2, 2017)
Personal Electronics on Flights to and From U.S.
If you’re planning on taking an international flight into or out oft he U.S. in the near future, you had best check the TSA or Department of Homeland Security Websites to find out if you’ll have to stow your laptop in checked luggage.
The Department of Homeland Security is considering imposing a ban on carrying laptops aboard all flights in to and out of the U.S., extending a similar ban which has applied flights from ten airports in the Middle East since March (and which actually applies to any electronic device larger than a smartphone, including tablets and e-readers.)
(Update, July 5, 2017: The New York Times reports that Etihad, Emirates, and Turkish Airlines have been exempted from the laptop ban that had been applied to flights from the ten Middle East airports.)
(Update, July, 12, 2017: Reuters reported that a ban on state-owned EgyptAir passengers using laptops on U.S.-bound flights has been lifted, and that Saudi Arabian Airlines, also known as Saudia, and Royal Air Maroc anticipated that the laptop on its flights will be lifted by July 19th.)
(Update, July 21, 2017: The New York Times reports that “[passengers flying into the United States from airports in 10 Muslim-majority countries affected by the ban may now take their laptops and other large electronic devices into the cabin with them.”
The newspaper said that:
“Instead of carrying out that broader ban, John F. Kelly, the Homeland Security secretary, announced last month that there would be new security standards for carriers flying into the United States. The first phase of those new rules required airports with carriers flying to American destinations to quickly demonstrate that they had the ability to screen passengers for trace amounts of explosives.
“More than 280 airports — including the 10 targeted by the original laptop ban — complied with that rule, officials said Thursday.”
Nothing in the Times story counters announcements we covered (below) over the past two days that indicated that passengers flying into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico should expect that their larger-than-cellphone electronic devices could be subject to close scrutiny and passengers might be required to remove those devices from protective cases and power them on at airport security checkpoints.
