After a few airlines announced that they are no longer subject to a ban on laptops and other personal electronics put in place in March for flights traveling to the U.S. from certain airports, the Department of Homeland Security says it will likely lift the ban for the remaining carriers.
Thus far, Royal Jordanian, Kuwait Airwways, Etihad Airways, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, and Qatar Airlines have had the ban lifted on their U.S.-bound flights after working with airports to implement the required enhanced security measures.
Egypt Air also said on Wednesday that the ban is no more on its flights from Cairo to New York:
On Tuesday, a DHS spokesman said that if the remaining airports on the list increase security measures in the coming days and weeks, the ban will be over, reports CNNMoney.
So Who’s Left?
The electronics ban is still in effect for flights coming to the U.S. on Royal Air Maroc flights from Casablanca, Morocco, and the carrier Saudia — Saudia Arabia’s national carrier — from Jeddah and Riyadh.
Saudia said last week that it expected to have all the required security updates in place by July 19.
The DHS spokesman wouldn’t discuss security changes to any flights that were affected by the ban, but said the ban will be lifted when U.S. officials can verify they’ve complied with the requirements.
He reiterated that all airlines around the world that fly to the U.S. will also have to put security upgrades in place if they want to avoid a similar ban.
The “nature of the threat remains,” he said.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist