Mideast airlines get set for passenger screening on all US-bound flights
New regulations cover 2,100 flights from around the world
DUBAI: New security screenings for all passengers on US-bound flights began on Thursday, with airlines worldwide questioning flyers about their trip and their luggage in the latest Trump administration decision affecting global travel.
However, confusion still remains about the new regulations, which come at the end of a 120-day period following the US lifting a ban on laptops in airplane cabins affecting 10 Middle East cities. The new regulations cover all the 2,100 flights from around the world entering the US on any given day.
Some airlines said they had received permission to delay implementing the new rules until January.
At Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, long-haul carrier Emirates began questioning passengers about their luggage, liquids they were carrying and where they were coming from. Passengers also had to have their carry-on bags searched, along with their electronics.
Emirates declined to discuss the new procedures in detail on Thursday. On Wednesday, it said it would conduct “passenger prescreening interviews” for those traveling on US-bound flights in concert with other checks on electronics.
Royal Jordanian, based in Amman, also has said it would introduce the new procedures in mid-January.
Other airlines with US-bound flights at Seoul’s Incheon International Airport brought in as many as seven extra staff to question passengers under the new rules but there were no major delays, airport spokesman Lee Jung-hoon said.
Singapore Airlines passengers may be required to “undergo enhanced security measures” including inspection of personal electronic devices “as well as security questioning during check-in and boarding,” the carrier said on its website.
Other carriers who announced the new regulations on Wednesday included Air France, Hong Kongbased Cathay Pacific Airways, the airlines of Germany’s Lufthansa Group and EgyptAir.
In Hong Kong, passengers described some of the questions they were asked.
“They asked me if I packed my own bag, where I packed it from, where I came from, they looked at my itinerary, verify where I was, who I was, from where I came from,” said Fran Young, who was traveling to Los Angeles.
Some showed displeasure.
“It’s a little inconvenient, I kind of just want to get my printed ticket and then just go inside,” passenger Gavin Lai said. “I don’t want to wait on people to interview me like that. So it’s a little annoying.”
In March, US officials introduced the laptop ban in the cabins of some Mideast airlines over concerns Daesh fighters and other extremists could hide bombs inside of them. The ban was lifted after those airlines began using devices like CT scanners to examine electronics before passengers boarded planes heading to the US. Some also increasingly swab passengers’ hands to check for explosive residue.
The laptop ban as well as travel bans affecting predominantly Muslim countries have hurt Middle East airlines. Emirates, the region’s biggest, said it slashed 20 percent of its flights to the US in the wake of the restrictions.