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Britain has joined the United States in temporarily banning carry-on electronic devices on planes coming from certain airports in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa in response to unspecified security threats.
Key Points:
- US says terrorist attempts to attack 'aviation sector' intensifying
- Affected airlines include Emirates flying out of Dubai
- No explanation as to why restrictions do not apply to same flights when they leave the US
The US Department of Homeland Security said passengers traveling from those airports could not bring devices such as tablets, portable DVD players, laptops and cameras into the main cabin that are larger than a mobile phone.
Instead, such items must be in checked baggage, it said on Tuesday, local time.
At this stage, the Australian Government says it has no plans to enact a similar ban.
However, Australians travelling to the UK or US from one of the nominated countries — or with an affected airline — look set to be hit by the ban on electronics.
There is the possibility Australians making stopovers en route to the UK or US, for instance through ports such as Dubai or Abu Dhabi, could be affected.
Britain took similar steps to the US, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May saying that there would be curbs on electronic items in the main cabin on flights from six countries in the Middle East.
The moves were prompted by reports that militant groups want to smuggle explosive devices inside electronic gadgets, US officials told reporters on a conference call on Monday.
"The US government is concerned about terrorists' ongoing interest in targeting commercial aviation, including transportation hubs over the past two years," a US counter-terrorism official said in a statement.
"Our information indicates that terrorist groups' efforts to execute an attack against the aviation sector are intensifying."
10 airports under microscope, long delays expected
A US government source said that while the restrictions arose from multiple reports of security threats, some very recent intelligence had arrived which helped to trigger the timing of the current alert.
The airports covered by the US restrictions are in Cairo; Istanbul; Kuwait City; Doha, Qatar; Casablanca, Morocco; Amman, Jordan; Riyadh and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates.
Those at affected airports are likely to experience long delays as airports adjust to the new security measures.
Officials said the decision had nothing to do with President Donald Trump's efforts to impose a travel ban on citizens of six majority-Muslim nations.
DHS spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said the government "did not target specific nations. We relied upon evaluated intelligence to determine which airports were affected."
On March 6, Trump signed a revised executive order barring citizens from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from traveling to the United States for 90 days.
Two federal judges have halted parts of the ban although Trump has vowed to appeal.
The airports affected by the US electronics rules are served by nine airlines that fly directly from those cities to the United States about 50 times a day, senior government officials said.
Measures likely to come to Australia eventually
A former Qantas senior executive responsible for security and risk management, who is now the airline's aviation security consultant, says it is "reasonably likely" the measures could eventually be introduced in Australia.
"It will depend on the substance of the intelligence that the agencies have," Geoff Aksew told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"It will certainly be frustrating for passengers. I think those travelling to Australia normally would have checked baggage so they would do a secondary screening I would imagine in the aero bridge of carry-on bags and if there's a laptop found then they will be required to put it in the hold.
"I think it would be prudent for [Australian] passengers travelling through the Middle East, those particularly going on to the UK or to the US at this stage, to determine whether they need to take those devices with them and if they do, to put them into their checked baggage."
Dr John Coyne, head of Border Security with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says Australian passengers may have to check in electronics once they get to an affected airport, before continuing their journey.
"I suspect that Qantas, for instance — as people are boarding in Sydney or Melbourne — will have to make its customers aware that while they can carry their electronic devices from the leg of Sydney to Dubai, if they're taking a connecting flight from there to … the UK, that they'll have to check-in those laptops and those iPads, etc," he told ABC News 24.
"I suspect that we'll now see a change in the screening requirements where either there'll be new screening machines developed or, alternatively, staff will be trained to look for the key indicators that a laptop or an iPad or some other type of device does or does not have an IED inside it.
"They're countermeasures that [make] the likelihood that an explosive device is going to go off inside the cabin less likely. I think that's a real bonus."
Airlines have until Friday to comply
The carriers — Royal Jordanian Airlines, Egypt Air, Turkish Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways — have until Friday to heed the new policy, which took effect early on Tuesday and will be in place indefinitely.
Several of the carriers, including Turkish Airlines, Etihad and Qatar, said early on Tuesday that they were quickly moving to comply.
Royal Jordanian and Saudi Airlines said on Monday that they were immediately putting the directive into place.
An Emirates spokeswoman said the new security directive would last until October 14.
However, Ms Christensen termed that date "a placeholder for review" of the rule.
The policy does not affect any American carriers because none fly directly to the United States from the airports affected, officials said.
New intelligence behind electronics ban
On Monday it emerged the US government had been considering the move since it learned of a threat several weeks ago.
US authorities believe there is a threat from plots similar to an incident a year ago in Somalia, where a bomb hidden in a laptop blew a hole in the side of a plane although failed to down it, another source said.
Officials did not explain why the restrictions only apply to travellers arriving in the United States and not for those same flights when they leave from there.
The rules do apply to US citizens traveling on those flights, but not to crew members on those foreign carriers.
Homeland Security will allow passengers to use larger approved medical devices.
Britain said its restrictions would apply to direct flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, and that devices larger than a normal-sized smartphone would have to be placed in the hold.
The British regulations affect British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Monarch, Thomas Cook, Thomson , Atlas-Global, Pegasus, EgyptAir, Royal Jordanian, Middle East Airlines, Saudia, Turkish Airlines and Tunisair.
Reuters
Topics: terrorism, air-transport, industry, business-economics-and-finance, world-politics, united-states, united-kingdom
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