You’ve probably heard about this in the news but in case you haven’t, the U.S. issued a temporary ban on electronics in cabins on some Middle Eastern flights to the U.S. It’s a temporary 96 hour ban at the moment but it still sucks if you were planning on traveling to the U.S. in the next few days and like me, take all your on inflight entertainment with you. Oddly though, according to AP, the ban includes Kuwait.
A U.S. official told The Associated Press the ban will apply to nonstop flights to the U.S. from 10 international airports serving the cities of Cairo in Egypt; Amman in Jordan; Kuwait City in Kuwait; Casablanca in Morocco; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; Istanbul in Turkey; and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The ban was indefinite, said the official.
I wasn’t aware of any direct flights to the U.S. from Kuwait. United Airlines stopped flying out from Kuwait and Kuwait Airways now stops in Ireland for security reasons on the way to New York. Is there a flight that is direct to the U.S. from Kuwait that I am not aware of?
Update: It might be a temporary ban, it might not be, everyone seems to be confused
Update2: Kuwait Airways will begin flying non-stop to New York starting from Sunday, March 26.
54 replies on “Electronics banned from cabins on some Middle Eastern flights to the U.S. including Kuwait”
I think there’s some misunderstanding here. From what I understand, the ban isn’t a temporary 96 hour ban – rather, the airlines have 96 hours to implement the new measure. After this time, the measure will remain in place indefinitely, which basically means permanently or until they say otherwise. To be fair, this information should be taken with a grain of salt, as most of what I’ve read has been conjecture with an official announcement to come soon. At any rate, the proposed ban is monumentally absurd and reeks of political motivation as opposed to actual safety measures. Dumb.
Thats not what the news is stating. They’re all stating it’s a temporary ban:
https://news.google.com/news/rtc?ncl=dI6aOaJGwXQFh_M3oSxwLqe5DIxaM&authuser=0&topic=h&siidp=bcb15adbc980bcc271ed8b5e376d13a8458f
The 96 hours figure came from Saudi Airlines who stated the ban would only be for 96 hours
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-electronics-on-planes-20170320-story.html
I should rephrase, they’re mostly stating it’s temporary and not they’re all stating it’s temporary
If by mostly you mean a tweet from Saudia Airlines, then sure. But most other places I’ve seen indicate the ban must be enforced in 96 hours and will then be permanent until they say otherwise. From the BBC:
“Officials said the ban had no end date. AP reported that airlines would not be officially informed of the ban until 03:00 ET (07:00 GMT) on Tuesday.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39333424
It seems there is confusion all around, regardless. So, at this point, who really knows.
AP also stated “the U.S. government is temporarily barring passengers on certain flights originating in eight other countries from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and most other electronics in carry-on luggage starting Tuesday.”
https://bigstory.ap.org/article/b5232028af3a453ca8cf62d16efc0c07/ban-aimed-electronics-cabins-some-us-bound-flights
So yeah there is a lot of confusion
Ha ha ha can’t wait for my next flight with my kids to NYC and them spending 14 hours without any entertainment.
Pretty sure 2 hours in we’ll be halting somewhere midway and the Pilot himself may have to request us “Sir, PLEASE let your kids have their iPads from the check-in baggage!!”
😀
hahahaha
What crappy airline are you using that they don’t have in-flight entertainment? I exclusively use Emirates nowadays and I can honestly say that no one in my family really needs their iPad while in-flight.
We take coloring books and other non-electronic forms of entertainment to fill in that time during layovers. For us it’s the risk of baggage handlers stealing our stuff, which I’m sure it will happen a lot now.
Calm ur tits it’s a joke
+1,000,000
hahahaha
Although they are nor specifically mentioned, I wonder if the noise cancelling headphones are included in the ban since they fall in the “larger than the cell phone” criteria.
Wth? I can’t have my Nintendo Switch on board ?
Nope, fly BA instead
On a related matter, a powered headphone (possibly Beats) blew up last week on board a flight in Australia while the listener was using it. It burned her head and face. Scary sh**. I’m rethinking having mine with me on board and perhaps getting a non-powered version.
There was no mention of the brand so why would you assume they were beats?
I didn’t assume anything. I said “possibly” which is a true statement. Anyway, I use powered Beats, so I don’t want to take a chance pending the uncovering of the brand.
I’d be more worried about your laptop blowing up, the battery in it is much larger than those in your headphones
Kuwait Airways now got approval and will start flying non stop to new york next week
oh yeah just checked. originally i plugged in dates for this week and it showed a stopover in ireland but i plugged in april 5 as departure and its showing non-stop
According to this, KU will not fly nonstop to JFK. It will stop in London Stansted airport instead of Shannon.
https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/271974/kuwait-airways-adds-london-stansted-stop-for-wb-new-york-svc-in-s17/
Emirates website now shows the advice and states it’s in place until 14 October 2017?
They’ve now amended it and removed the date
Not just flights to the US, but also direct flights to UK.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39343971
Looks like I’ll be flying with Lufthansa or KLM this summer…
The British ban doesn’t include Kuwait.
On a recent trip out of Kuwait the carry on scanner guy wanted to take my 3 Kuwait souvenir coffee mugs. When I challenged his actions with someone else it was ok to take them. Just an example of the BS here. I can only think he wanted to keep them.
This might be why https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/03/21/trump-wont-allow-you-to-use-ipads-or-laptops-on-certain-airlines-heres-the-underlying-story/?tid=sm_fb
this makes a lot of sense now
This is indeed the reason as US companies flying from these areas are not included in the ban! If it was security reasons, then all flights should be included!
“Airlines were notified on March 21 at 08:00 EDT. They have 96 hours within which to comply. For more information on these security enhancements, please contact your air carrier or visit the Department of Homeland Security website.” That might be where the 96-hour confusion comes in.
I’m so embarrassed by the political nonsense taking place in the US right now.
From what I am hearing on the various news sources this is due to the fact that bombs are being smuggled on aircraft by bypassing the security checks. There have been two confirmed explosions due to lack of security one resulted in all on board killed one only the bomber was killed.
The UK has just imposed the same restrictions I expect many other Europe countries to do the same.
This ban is coming on the heels of his two previous Muslim bans being shut down by Federal Judges. Additionally, the majority of domestic terrorism in the US isn’t at the hands of tourists or even immigrants. So it seems if safety concerns are really the reason for this ban, domestic flights in the US would also be included.
Could you please post what explosions you are referring to? I can’t seem to find any references to them online. Are they related to the Bowling Green Massacre? 😉
LOL. Bravo! Probably so 🙂
What if someone buys an electronic device in an airport duty free? Will that be allowed in the cabin of the plane?
Just before the summer season, it’s very straight forward they want to divert all the business to European carriers who have code share with AA and UA !
Exactly!
It’s also about the massive hubs: Doha, Dubai & Abu Dhabi . They’re jealous of the business they’re making and how grandiose the airports are
So basically if someone is taking electronics, they should put them in their luggage. Which is more dangerous. Genius.
Also, risk of theft.
Wrap your luggage in Plastic.
That would not prevent a battery from exploding.
Surely if you have the ability to turn an iPad into a weapon of mass destruction, you could do the same with an iPhone 7 Plus
#FuckingJoke
And now you’re on their travel ban list
So a Kindle too falls in that category?
Kindle is electronics right?!! Better question should have been should you get your pace maker removed before boarding the flight 😀
Yes, E-readers are not allowed.
Time to fire up my old Nintendo Game & Watch games!
what games do you have? these are the ones I have
https://imgur.com/a/vCcQY
What about if an American or British airport is a transit? like for example in the way to Canada and you spend 6 hrs in LA as transit
well guess who’s not going to the usa
This ban is for any direct flights from eight countries, Kuwait included. If you travel domestically or are flight out of the US to these countries, the ban is NOT applicable. The ban applies to EVERYONE regardless of citizenship. If you afe not on a direct flight then it does not apply. Its a good thing that I don’t travel that way. Still, I feel bad for parents with their kids. Not everyone can afford to travel with Emirates. I am just waiting for Trump to start banning smartphones and carry on luggage too.
I think this ban is aimed at hurting the airlines which are competing with the American airline companies.
Of course , of the airlines targeted, Qatar & Emirates are on a league of their own in terms of service and quality. Their US bound flights are always packed especially their award winning business class. But Kuwait airways is a player in the lower end market with many connecting flights from Asia to New York & London. The same goes for Turkish Airlines.
But really the man target in this is Qatar & UAE. They are the main international hubs and many competitors are simply envious of what they’ve become.
American Airlines were trying to sue Qatar and Emirates and I think they lost the case? (I haven’t verified but a friend mentioned it)
Another point is starting last year, before boarding the plane passengers were asked to switch on their devices. Devices with dead battery weren’t allowed on board. The logic behind that was to see if the device were functional (or “concealing” something). So I find this new ban to be redundant.
Finally, why impose the ban on these airports? Why not Charles De Gaule? Remember the Egypt Air flight which went down over Crete? It was heading to Cairo. Not leaving Cairo.