This is great news for all those that had travel plans on airlines to the US that were under the electronics ban – with the clearing of the Jeddah, Saudia Arabia Airlines is now the final airline to be cleared. Yes, all affected airlines are now out from under the electronics ban!
Electronics Ban Completely Lifted On All Airlines
When the electronics ban was originally initiated back in March, the date of October 24 was thrown around as the “earliest” date that the ban would be lifted. After that, rumors began to circle that European airports would fall under the ban as well. But, the Department of Homeland Security instead initiated new security protocols and once the affected airports were inspected for their implementation, the electronics ban was lifted. With today’s lifting of the ban from Jeddah, all airlines are now cleared.
Now, these new security protocols will make things different from how it was going through these airports with larger electronics even in the first of this year, but at least you won’t be separated from those expensive electronics while onboard! I am pretty happy as my go-to airline for flights from Europe to the US is Turkish Airlines with Qatar now a very strong second. So, I am happy to be able to look at booking with them yet again!
Note: the article from Reuters says that Jeddah has been cleared but that US officials will be varifying compliance at Riyadh’s airport later this week. At the very least, the ban has been lifted for Saudia with the clearance of Jeddah and it sounds as if it is a done deal with Riyadh as well.
Anyone have flights from any of the 10 airports soon?
HT: Reuters
