Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar and the UAE, including Dubai flights were then stated to ban iPads, laptop and other electronic devices. Devices larger than regular smartphones were then ruled by President Trump to be restricted from U.S. flights to the six Muslim major countries.
According to The Washington Post, the reason for Trump’s airline electronic ban is security. An insider familiar with the ban told the publication then that a Syrian terrorist group is said to build bombs inside electronic devices. In which, would be hard to detect.
Yet, another reason was pointed out to be that airlines Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways had been accused by their U.S. competitors to be “receiving massive effective subsidies from their governments.” It was then said that Trump might be using the ban as a retribution upon the three major Gulf airlines. In which, the airlines could lose their Business travelers on their business class for not being able to work while in flight due to the electronic ban.
Independent then reported that due to the commotion, Britain is said to follow the ban as well. It was then clearly cited that the move by U.S. was due to an attempt by the Islamist al-Shabaab group that aims to destroy a jet in Somalia using a bomb built inside a laptop.
Prime Minister Theresa May then stated that they are now communicating with the airline industry to minimize “frustration” experienced by the passengers. Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia were then mentioned to be affected by Britain’s follow up move whilst U.S. has ten countries affected.
King's College London and Geneva Centre for Security Policy researcher, Jean-Marc Rickli then shared his opinion on the airline ban. He mentioned that “As soon as you issue a ban like this, from a terrorist perspective you will just change your operating plan – instead of flying from Doha or Dubai you just fly from Amsterdam or Paris.”
