New security screenings start for US-bound flights

NEW security screenings have started for all passengers on US-bound flights, with airlines worldwide questioning travellers about their trip and their luggage in the latest Trump administration decision affecting global travel.

However, confusion remains about the new regulations, which come at the end of a 120-day period after the US lifted a ban on laptops in plane cabins affecting 10 Middle Eastern cities.

The new regulations cover about 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 travelling from.

Passengers also had to have their carry-on bags searched, along with their electronics. Emirates declined to discuss the new procedures in detail, but on Wednesday it said it would conduct “passenger prescreening interviews” for those travelling on US-bound flights, as well as other checks on electronics.

Elsewhere, things did not appear to be going so smoothly. In China, an official in the Xiamen Airlines press office said the airlines received a “demand” about the new US regulations and planned “to take some security measures, including security safety interviews from today on”.

“We’re not going to interview all passengers, but focus on those with a certain degree of risk when checking the passengers’ documents on the ground,” he said.

An official with the Eastern Airlines publicity department said she saw media reports about security safety interviews but did not have immediate details on what her company was doing.

An official at the Beijing Airport press centre would only say: “We always strictly follow relevant regulations of the Civil Aviation Administration when conducting security checks.”

An Air China official said the country’s flag-carrier would comply.

“We will meet the demands from the US side, but as for the detailed measures (we will take), it is inconvenient for us to release,” he said.

Royal Jordanian, based in Amman, said it would introduce the new procedures in mid-January.