not effective
Before I get flamed. I will not reveal anything that a regular business traveller will not know and bad guys can be business travellers too. I also accept this is a fast-moving situation and things may change over the next few hours and days as other countries join in the fun.
Next week I am travelling from the Far East to the UK and have chosen Turkish Airlines for economic reasons, they are cheap and provide star alliance points there is also a fair chance I will have an empty seat next to me as things are not going well for THY.
I will now have to check my laptop even though I am only transiting Istanbul and despite it having been cleared by security in an unaffected country. If I was flying from Istanbul to London on Lufthansa via Munich I would transit Munich non-Schengen to non-Schengen without a security check in Munich and thus would arrive in the UK with my laptop having been cleared only by Turkish security.
So, even though I am not traveling from Turkey I will be inconvenienced whereas a “bad guy” traveling from Istanbul with the intention of harming an aircraft over UK airspace can still do so if they take an indirect flight.
As it stands, at the moment, at best it is an ineffective regulation badly applied, at worst it is deliberately put in place to economically harm certain countries airlines.
If it is the former, then it needs to be sorted out quickly because we are all apparently in danger and there is a huge gap in the regulation rendering it ineffective. If it is the latter, then I am sure there will be retaliation by the affected countries soon, at least I hope there will be.
Whatever the outcome it will stop me flying THY after this trip, fortunately this trip requalifies me Star Alliance Gold so it’s not an issue #firstworldproblem
Last edited by STN Ramp Rat; 22nd Mar 2017 at 02:29.