Electronics flight ban bad for business

FREQUENT flyers who spend their time in the sky in front of a computer screen are going to have to find new ways to pass the hours.

The US and the UK have announced new electronics bans on almost all devices – except cellphones – on inbound flights from the Middle East as well as northern Africa.

Flight Centre Travel Group’s Michelle Jolley said the ban would also apply to travellers flying from South Africa, through these regions.

“While electronic devices will be permitted on flights, for example, to Dubai, they will be banned on flights, for example, from Dubai to the US.”

The US on Tuesday announced that because of terrorism threats, devices larger than a cellphone would no longer be allowed on flights departing from 10 airports in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Travellers flying from these airports to the US will, from tomorrow, have to stow such devices in their checked-in baggage.

Shortly after the US’s announcement, the UK also banned laptops and tablets larger than 16cm x 9.3cm x 1.5cm, from carry-on baggage on incoming flights from Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Tunisia.

Dinesh Naidoo, group operations director of Durban-based Serendipity Tours, said the electronics bans were a big concern and would affect travellers from the corporate sector dramatically.

“Business people generally work during the flights, especially if they are very long,” he said.

Melanie Veness, the chief executive of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business, agreed.

“Some of those flights are exceptionally long. This ban is going to mean the loss of several productive hours,” she said.

Veness said that if your checked baggage – along with your devices – was delayed, it could jeopardise any presentations you had scheduled and that there was a risk that valuable items could be stolen from checked baggage or damaged during handling.

Naidoo said there was an element of risk with storing electronic goods in checked baggage.

“The security of the devices in baggage is a concern,” he said.

Jolley advised business people who needed to work on their flights, to change their routes or carriers.

“We know that travellers have for years been advised not to put any valuables in their checked baggage, but this ban obviously changes the playing field.”

She advised travellers to wrap up their devices and to make sure they took out travel insurance.

“You can also ask the airline to put a ‘fragile’ sticker on your bag to prevent it being thrown around,” Jolley said.

An Etihad Airways spokesperson said the UAE-based airline had been advised about the electronics bans.

US-bound travellers would now have to check their devices in at the point of origin, he said.

He said that while Abu Dhabi International Airport was not listed on the ban related to flights to the UK, enhanced security screening was likely for guests travelling to the UK.