Security to get tougher – but laptops, iPads can stay in cabin
Travelers
from around the world seeking to fly to the United States will soon face a new
series of security hurdles before they’ll be allowed to enter the country.
And if the airline
they are flying is either unable or unwilling to comply with the new security
measures being imposed by the Department of Homeland Security, the airline
could lose its landing rights in the United States.
“I am concerned that we are seeing renewed interest on the part
of terrorist groups to go after the aviation sector—from bombing aircraft to
attacking airports on the ground, as we saw in Brussels and Istanbul,” said John F. Kelley, the Secretary of Homeland Security.
“However, we are not standing on the sidelines while fanatics
hatch new plots. The U.S. government is focused on deterring, detecting, and
disrupting these threats,” he said.
“We cannot play
international whack-a-mole with each new threat. Instead, we must put in place
new measures across the board to keep the traveling public safe and make it
harder for terrorists to succeed,” he said.
“I am announcing a first step toward this goal by requiring new
security measures to be applied to all commercial flights coming into the United
States. These measures will be both seen and unseen, and they will be phased in
over time”
The measures include:
·
Enhancing overall
passenger screening;
·
Conducting heightened
screening of personal electronic devices;
·
Increasing security
protocols around aircraft and in passenger areas; and
·
Deploying advanced
technology, expanding canine screening, and establishing additional
pre-clearance locations.
Kelley said these
measures could affect all commercial flights departing from 280 airports that
serve as last points of departure to the United States.
According to Homeland
Security officials, the new restrictions affect 105 countries and a total of
180 airlines. On average, that’s 2,000 flights a day with 325,000 daily passengers.
Homeland Security did,
however, did abandon its plan to prohibit passengers from bringing laptops and
tablets onto planes in their carry-on bags,
Currently, passengers
traveling from airports in a total of eight Muslim-majority countries are prohibited
from carrying laptop computers, iPads and other devices larger than a cell
phone aboard direct flights the United States. Gulf airlines have been the most
affected by the current restrictions.
The department said
the restriction on electronic devices on flights from those eight countries
might be lifted when and if those airports and airlines adopt the new security
measures.
The department warned
that airlines or foreign airports “who fail to implement these requirements and
the follow-on measures within certain timeframes run the risk of additional
security restrictions. Ultimately, failure to follow security directives can
jeopardize an airline or airport’s ability to operate flights into the United
States.”
According to the Los
Angeles Times, the United Arab Emirates ambassador in Washington, Yousef Al
Otaiba, vowed to “strongly support and
cooperate fully” with the Homeland Security rules, which he
called “good news” for travelers on flights originating in or transiting the
giant airport in Dubai.
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