Seal of the United States Department of Homeland SecurityThe U.S. government has lifted the in-cabin ban on laptops and other large electronic devices on inbound flights from Dubai and Istanbul, according to Emirates and Turkish Airlines.

An Emirates spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday that the ban was lifted for flights out of Dubai after the airline adopted new security measures announced last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Turkish Airlines tweeted on Tuesday that the ban had been lifted, while CEO Bilal Eksi informed Reuters that he also expected restrictions to be lifted for U.K.-bound flights.

The original ban came into effect in March on flights originating at 10 airports in eight countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey. The ban was imposed after "evaluated intelligence" suggested a bomb threat that involved smaller bombs being concealed in electronic devices taken aboard aircraft.

The new enhanced security measures were announced on June 29 and require additional time to screen passengers. The new protocol takes effect within three weeks of the announcement and will affect around 325,000 daily passengers travelling on 180 airlines from 280 airports around the world, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Saudi Arabia Airlines (Saudia) expects the ban to lifted on flights from Jeddah and Riyadh by July 19, state news agency SPA reported on Tuesday.

Top Rated Comments

jkool Avatar
81 months ago
Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GrumpyMom Avatar
81 months ago
The risk of explosion is still there,Not from a bomb concealed in a laptop.It Can be from a faulty battery in someone's laptop or from a cheapo tablet:D
Don't look at me. I turned in my Note 7! ;)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
81 months ago
I don't see anyone writing Constantinople here?
Per Wikipedia ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_(Not_Constantinople)'):
"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" is a 1953 novelty song ... the lyrics humorously refer to the official 1930 renaming of the city of Constantinople to Istanbul.
...
One of the better-known versions of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" is the cover by the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants (TMBG), who released it on their album Flood in 1990.

Istanbul - They Might Be Giants - lyrics - YouTube ('//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sl4XCVmoXg')
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
OldSchoolMacGuy Avatar
81 months ago
The number of direct flights from those airports to the US were very minimal, impacting very few. In almost all cases, one would connect through another airport, most commonly in Europe, first, and not be impacted by this.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Markoth Avatar
81 months ago
Why did Constantinople get the works?!
Why do you care? It's nobody's business but the Turks.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Superhai Avatar
81 months ago
There are 18 different airline-city combinations that have direct flights to/from Dubai. They're listed here ('http://www.travelmath.com/nonstop-flight/from/United+States/to/Dubai,+United+Arab+Emirates'). Emirates has three nonstops daily between Dubai and JFK. That one airline has thousands of seats weekly -- just to JFK. How do you score that as "very minimal"?
That list is not very accurate, it includes codeshare and some routes have been terminated. But on the other hand Emirates have daily flights to/from Boston (around 300 seats/direction ), Chicago (350), Dallas (350), Houston (350), Los Angeles (500), New York (1500), San Francisco (500), Seattle (250), Washington DC (500) plus Fort Lauderdale (250), Orlando (250) with five weekly. Emirates have an average seat factor of 80% so that is 3700 daily passengers to US for Emirates alone. Considering that most flights flown for most passengers are not intercontinental, or do connect to services above 6 hours, you are extremely modest in your assessment of thousands weekly affected, which would be a drop in the ocean. The weekly number is in tens of thousands for Emirates weekly, when you include Qatar, Turkish Airlines, and Etihad probably 100 000 weekly and above. It is rather high percentage of those flying these longer flights, where the use of a laptop would be more important.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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