Due to the fear of bombs that could be concealed in the devices, United States of America has imposed a ban on eight main Muslim countries. Amongst the airlines, Etihad, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, and Qatar Airways separated themselves last week.
The ban was introduced due to the knowledge of the intelligence officials about the efforts of Jihadists to develop a bomb that could be concealed in electronic devices. According to BBC news, “the carriers had declared that they are working with the US officials to tighten the security on flights from Kuwait to Jordan."
As new measures were implemented for the US bound flights, Royal Jordanian moved out from under the law.
Royal Jordanian flies to three US cities from the Jordanian capital, Amman.
The ban was lifted from the state-owned Kuwait Airways after the US officials inspected the new security measures in their flight. Kuwait Airlines flies from Kuwait to New York via Ireland.
Airport security
The US Department of Homeland Security had announced that they would be implementing measures on increasing the time to screen passengers and electronic devices. The law was applicable for all US-bound flights and included flights from almost 105 countries.
The airlines, in the beginning, had high hopes that with the arrival of security measures, the electronics ban would be lifted off. Moroccan Airlines, Egyptian Airlines, and Saudia are yet to declare a lifting of the ban.
The flagship airlines of Saudi Arabia, Saudia, has announced that the passengers would be able to carry personal electronic devices in the cabin from July 19th. Royal Air Maroc hoped to follow suit so that it could also have the ban lifted by the same dates for the flights out of Casablanca.
Lifting of the ban
On Thursday, Qatar Airways gathered two long distance Gulf carriers to lift off the ban on electronic devices in plane cabins.
During this effort, the Airways had to face certain logistical challenges and diplomatic disputes with several Arab nations.
The Gulf airlines have not made any comments on the security procedures, while the Turkish officials announced that they use CT scanners to take cross-sectional images of the electronic devices.
Qatar Airways has seen its flight paths being cut off to the neighboring countries as Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE cut diplomatic ties with the country on June 5th. As reported by the Guardian, “Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that the Qatar Airways delay in getting off the laptop ban has nothing to do with the disputes."
