Passengers could be banned from carrying laptops on US flights

THE United States is considering banning laptops from passenger cabins on all inbound and outbound international flights.

John Kelly, the US homeland security secretary, was asked whether he would expand the current limited ban to all flights and he replied: “I might.” It would dramatically expand a ban announced in March by the US and UK on some flights from the Middle East and North Africa.

Mr Kelly said: “There’s numerous threats against aviation. That’s really the thing that they’re obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight.

“We’re still following the intelligence. It is a real, sophisticated threat, and I’ll reserve that decision until we see where it’s going.”

The restrictions introduced in March were in response to the possibility of terrorists hiding bombs in electronic devices. They relate to devices larger than a mobile phone.

Mr Kelly suggested that the laptop ban could ultimately be avoided by improved bag-screening technology.

He said: “There’s new technologies down the road, not too far down the road, that we’ll rely on.”