The “Laptop Ban” Might Not Happen (If Countries Comply with the US)

Speaking to the Center for New American Security, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly announced that new aviation security measures would soon go into effect for flights to the US and that if airline carriers refused to follow any of the new security measures they could be banned from operating their direct flights to the US.

(The DHS does of course does not have jurisdiction over foreign carriers but they do have jurisdiction over direct flights coming into the US, so halting airlines that don’t comply with the new requirements is well within their power.)

The DHS refused to disclose full details of the new policies for obvious reasons but here’s what we know about some of the new regulations:

• Some will be “seen and unseen”
• They will be phased in over time
• They will involve heightened scrutiny of passengers entering the US
• They will involve enhanced screening of electronic devices
• We will see better deployment of canines that detect explosives
• More airports will be encouraged to become US Pre-Clearance airports

The good news that that the airpots originally hit with the laptop ban will be given a chance to comply with these new measures and other steps in order to have the current electronic bans removed.

The DHS commented that “The threat has not diminished. In fact, [we are] concerned that we are seeing renewed interest on the part of terrorist groups to go after the aviation sector.” The running threat has been that terrorists have been planning to use explosive concealed in electronics, such as laptops and tablets.

While the US wanted to implement a ban on all of these electronics, leaders from the EU were able to show that hauling so many lithium batteries in the cargo hold posed a safety threat due to the potential for fire and the fact that nobody would be there to put it out (as opposed to if a fire started in the cabin).

The new security measures will likely result in slow-downs for flights coming into the US. It will first take time for airports to learn how to implement these new procedures and then will take time to actually execute the new policies, so I’d expect line delays when flying back to the US from many airports. Long lines in pre-security airport areas raise their own security issues so something might need to be done about that at some point.

Overall, I’m actually not opposed to these procedures. I’ve said all along that the electronics ban didn’t make sense since there were so many question marks with respect to the laptop ban and that we should instead focus on implementing enhanced screening. And while the DHS has been (understandingly) vague on what exactly some of these new screening techniques will be, I feel much more confident about the potential efficacy of new screening procedures than I do about the current laptop ban. Hopefully, these new measures can be put into place without too much complication and we’ll seen be able to feel a little bit better when taking our seat in the sky.