If they were, we wouldn't need to have this discussion, because they'd already have smuggled bombs on board.

From EK: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtm...d=11200DN1OXA8

That will be interesting. I guess it helps when you have near-slave labour, and no unions.

I `ll just stick my trusty old PC in my little OAP shopping pull along and see what is said about that. Never managed to get to grips with these eye pads, laps and tablets and things anyway.

Not really. I think it shows that ME carriers are more proactive to issues and come up with reasonable approaches. US carriers would take 6 months to think of this, then want to charge a fee for it, doubled if not pre-booked, and the collection staff would doubtless want a tip as well.

This is going to be very difficult to police. Most airports have a common security check, regardless of the airline or destination. It would be easy for someone with a non UK airline and destination to bring a laptop through and then give it to a UK bound passenger.
The only way to police this is to have an extra security check at the gate, including a scanner. How long will it take to set this up, and how many gates have the space to do this? What do the airline staff do if they find a laptop as the passenger's bag will already be in the hold?

"I'm sorry, sir, your laptop doesn't appear to have travelled on your flight, here's a form you can use to report your loss".

Ebay is going to be busy ...

Don't think that scenario is a problem for airline staff, the pax has attempted to bypass the security rules his/her problem bye bye lappy? or miss flight.

Hand baggage check prior to boarding in a secure area. Already happens in Doha and Singapore.

I don't know about Doha, but Singapore Airport had gate security checks in the original design with scanners being installed during the building. My question is; How long will it take the airlines to establish security screening at gates which may or may not have the space to do so? Can they set up the equipment (scanners?) and recruit the (vetted) security staff in time?

Regardless of the reasons (real or otherwise) for this action, Saturday will be a gong show at the airports in question.

Probably been said before (cant be bothered to read through the last 7 pages) but two things spring to mind.
1. This is an admission that the need to upack your laptop and put it through the xray at security for the last few decades has been a monumental waste of time.
2. All terrorists are running on shoestring budget (or are too stupid) to relocate, assemble and then board a flight from airports not listed.

Of interest is that nothing packed in the hold bag is covered by insurance. SQ desk staff at Guangzhou insisted that my 6.9 kg cabin bag that had to reduced to 5 kg despite having done two sectors with SQ at the 7 kg limit. As my hold bag was too far up the check in conveyor the desk agent took my phone, charger and book from me and packed them in. After arriving in Medan on Silkair found phone and charger missing.
The insurance company refused to pay as nothing packed in bag, even by SQ staff against my protest that I am allowed 7 kg, was covered.
Who will cover loses due to theft or damage? Business opportunity for Rent a PC and cloud people must be happy?

The size of the phone is left to airline discretion as per Dept. of Homeland Security: A9: The size and shape of smart phones varies by brand. Smartphones are commonly available around the world and their size is well understood by most passengers who fly internationally. Please check with your airline if you are not sure whether your smartphone is impacted.

I have received an email from one airline that details sizes so my Nokia Lumia 1320 phone is not allowed in cabin. This is 6" screen. Seems like a new phone is required before my flights later this month and in April if it might be removed on some airlines.

I wish the ruling was global and not by airline

Not last time I was there 3 weeks ago...

Vital statistics
 

Of the top 10 nationality arrivals into the US none of them transit thru any of the 10 airports. Arrivals from country 11 are 2.5 million annually of which 1.3 million trabsit thru DXB, AUH, IST & QTR (I suspect this number is almost double as statistics are kept by nationality. A large number of this countries travellers have US or other nationalities but live/visit their country of birth regularly). The country number 11 is not on the banned list & also has direct flights to the USA & via all European Hubs. A 20 year backward look also shows that none & I state zilch have any inflight incident in specific relation to a terrorist type incident that has originated from any lapses of these 4 airports. The issue is not about the laprop ban, but with a warning on potential terror attacks on these flights, it will scare the travellers from country 11 to "fly buy Dubai" & push them back to the European hubs.

Coming up with the idea in the first place is the kind of thing one would expect here.

Your comment about slaves is patently ridiculous - people can leave Dubai whenever they want, and choose to go there to earn far more than they earn in their home countries.

As to the unions argument - well I'd rather live in a place where unions don't bully intimidate and destroy other peoples livelihood to get an unearned, overpaid job doing very little of value.

Its flight specific - almost no flights have baggage checks before boarding.

The OP has extrapolated a single personal experience to be something that happens regularly.

Four years of flying in and out of Doha every week and I've not had it done once.

It seems some carriers will ensure that your purchased duty free goods will have to be placed into your luggage. How do you do that when you've already checked it in and passed through security? What happens if you want to buy a tablet at duty free price? Still loads of unanswered questions.

If Emirates provides high net worth pax with company terminals/laptops on board then provided you have downloaded your files on a memory stick then one can continue to work.
Also airlines like Norwegian who have inflight wifi could pioneer something similar

I don't think many travellers would work on their files using an airline provided device.Security of your data would be compromised.

Just not practical with modern IT security. Complex enough to log on outside of company networks on one's own computers as it is!!

But laptop ban is just whack-a-mole action. There are thousands of other ways to carry an terror attack. Blocking one, movie terror scenario, doesn't do anything to improve real security. But it's great security theater!

And thousands of lifes is quite small in the big picture. More lives would be saved *monthly* by banning texting while driving. But lets rather focus on scary foreigners.