Bizarre ban

The ban on carrying laptops in cabin baggage is most certainly going to make travel unnecessarily taxing for passengers, without adding much, if anything, to improve aviation security.

While this ban comes following reports that there may be a threat of a laptop bomb, it is sincerely hoped that the United States and Britain will craft better and more sensible ways to handle the threat. At present, the ban appears ill-thought out and too short term a measure to make passengers any safer. Experts around the world have also pointed towards the weakness of such a prohibition because there is no good reason to believe that terrorists cannot bring down a plane using explosives in the check-in luggage or what could ensure that terrorists do not fly from a country not listed in the ban. Is there any way to ensure that people cannot be travelling from a European country with such intentions? The answer to that is no.

The ban is mainly affecting travellers from Turkey, two North African countries — Egypt and Tunisia — and three Middle Eastern states: Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. This is going to make things particularly hard for the UAE’s airlines and Turkish airlines that cater to a very large number of travellers connecting from the East to the West, with several flights a day from Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Doha to North America and the UK.

Even Kindle e-readers and smartphones beyond a specific size — or beyond the typical size of a large iPhone — are part of this ban. Many passengers do their work on long flights. How will they cope with their away-from office workload now? There are also other practical considerations such as insurance of electronics. There is no mechanism in place to ensure that these goods will not be stolen. If something is stolen, which airport will be responsible and how will people get their goods back? Also, how will it be ensured that private, sensitive information on electronic devices is not looked into?

This highly unusual ban is bizarre and will help no one. One hopes better sense prevails.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2017.

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