Loan service gets around laptop ban

Qatar Airways has come up with a solution to the recent in- flight electronics ban.

The Doha- based airline is offering a laptop loan service for its businessclass passengers travelling on US-bound flights, starting next week.

Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said the airline appreciated the importance of passengers being able to work on board.

“By providing this laptop loan service we can ensure that our passengers on flights to the US can continue to work whilst on board,” Al Baker said.

“This unique ability to offer ‘ business as usual’, above and beyond the competition, is yet another example of Qatar Airways’ justification for being the ‘ World’s Best Business Class’.”

Under the new electronics ban, all laptops, tablets, cameras, portable DVD players, gaming devices and e- book readers have to be checked in as cargo luggage on all US- bound flights from Amman, Kuwait City, Cairo, Istanbul, Jeddah, Riyadh, Casablanca, Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The sudden ban implemented by the Trump Administration has been followed by the British Government.

Britain’s version of the ban applies to flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, but does not include the powerful Gulf aviation area.

Qatar Airways has begun offering a service at boarding gates whereby any prohibited electronic items affected by the new ban will be collected and securely packaged.