DHS amends ban on in-flight laptops

Changes force airlines to step up security

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is demanding that airlines around the world step up security measures for international flights bound for the United States or face the possibility of a total electronics ban for planes.

Compliance with the new rules could lead to the lifting of a ban on laptops and other large electronics already in place for airlines flying to the United States from10 airports in the Middle East and Africa. It could also stave off a much-discussed expansion of the ban to flights from Europe.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly unveiled the new rules Wednesday.

The changes will be phased in over the coming weeks and monthsand include enhanced passenger vetting, explosives detection

and efforts to root out insider threats to airlines.

“Security is my No. 1concern,” Kelly said during a speech at the Center for a New American Security. “Our enemies are adaptive, and we have to adapt as well.”

Kelly said the changes will be “seen and unseen.”

He said airlines that don’t comply or are slow to enforce the new standards could be forced to bar large electronics in both carry-on and checked luggage. They could also lose permission to fly into theUnited States.

The current ban, which affects only foreign carriers

flying to the U.S. from 10 cities, allows passengers to travel with larger electronics packed in checked baggage.

Expanding the ban could cost $1.1 billion a year in lost productivity, travel time and “passenger-well-being,” Alexandre de Juniac, chief executive of the International AirTransport Association, which represents 265 airlines, wrote in a letter to Violeta Bulc, the EU’s top transportation official, and Kelly.

The new rules will apply to roughly 180 foreign and U.S.-based airlines, flying from 280 cities in 105 countries, according to Homeland Security.

The original laptop and electronics ban has been in

place since March amid concerns about an undisclosed threat. That ban applied to nonstop flights to the United States from Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and AbuDhabi inthe United Arab Emirates. The roughly 50 affected flights are on foreign airlines.

The government had considered expanding the laptop ban to include some European airports, though in recent public comments Kelly had suggested the government was looking at alternatives.

The Washington Post contributed.