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UK and U.S. Laptop Ban Affects Airlines in the Middle East and Africa

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UK and U.S. Laptop Ban Affects Airlines in the Middle East and Africa
Bernadine Racoma

First there was the travel ban, now the U.S. just issued a laptop ban, which was seconded by the UK in light of the attack on the British Parliament. Looking at the ban, it will generally affect business travelers using various airlines for the long flights from the Middle East and Africa to the U.S. and the UK. Wall Street has already predicted that business travelers, the major users of the affected airports and airlines might shy away from these carriers because they would not be able to get their work done in-flight. The affected business travelers are disgruntled, which is to be expected. They have to think of changing their travel plans, looking at connecting flights from other airports instead of booking the long haul flights from the specific airports and airlines.

Huge loss

Most airlines from the Middle East have spent millions to entice business travelers away from carriers from Asia, Europe and the United States. The big airlines have also beefed up their fleet and customized their planes, packages, in-flight entertainment and other offerings to drown out the competition. Now it seems that their advertising and marketing expenditures will go to waste once the laptop and large electronics ban is fully enforced. Airports from the affected regions have until Saturday, March 25 to follow the new rules.

What the ban entails

The large electronics ban requires travelers to pack their laptops and tablets together with their checked-in luggage if they are flying to the U.S. or the UK from airports coming from North Africa and the Middle East. Only small devices such as mobile phones will be allowed in their carry-on bags. The ban was issued because there was evaluated intelligence report indicating that terrorists are likely to use consumer devices to bring explosives aboard planes from specific airports, whose security measures are found to be lax. It was also mentioned that an explosive would have to be manually triggered from a laptop or tablet.

Affected airports and airlines

While the laptop ban from the two countries seems to be similar, their choices of airports and carriers are different. The U.S. ban affects the international airports in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, which will impact nine carriers including Emirates Airline, Etihad Airlines, Egyptair, Royal Jordanian and Qatar Airways. The UK on the other hand has 15 airlines in their list, including Egyptair, Royal Jordanian, Saudia as well as British Airways, Tunis Air, Easy Jet, Middle East Airlines and Pegasus Airways among others. Many of these airlines come from airports in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

What’s the risk of checking in laptops and tablets?

Aside from being an annoyance, checking-in laptops heightens the risk of fire from lithium-ion batteries while in the plane’s cargo hold. It also increases the opportunity for theft and possibly damage to these sensitive electronic devices. It’s a known fact that cargo and baggage handlers usually mistreat checked-in luggage. Unfortunately, travel insurance does not cover damage to electronic items such as cameras, tablets and laptops that are included in checked-in luggage.

Economic protectionism?

There is the idea that this laptop ban is more of a way to protect U.S. airlines. A few are finding it difficult to compete against the giant airlines from the Middle East, particularly the ME3 — Qatar, Etihad and Emirates that are hurting American passenger carriers like American Airlines, Delta Air and United Airlines. The estimate is that the nine airlines together offer 18,000 seats each day for their direct flights to the U.S. from their North African and Middle East hubs, covering 50 flight routes.

The actual reasons for the laptop ban have yet to surface. At the moment, there are no concrete explanations as to why the ban was actually issued and why certain hubs/airlines in the U.S. list are not in the list issued by the UK and vice-versa.

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