Business and leisure travelers ponder flying without their laptops

NEW YORK (AP) – International air travelers might soon rediscover magazines, paperbacks and playing cards.

Airline passengers have become hooked on their laptops and tablets to get work done or just kill time during long flights. But US aviation-security officials appear determined to ban large electronic devices in the cabin of flights from Europe.

Business travelers are worried about lost productivity, laptops in checked baggage being stolen or damaged, or even leaving the machine home if their employer won't let them check it on a plane. Parents are pondering how to keep children occupied.

On Wednesday, US and European Union officials exchanged information about threats to aviation, believed to include bombs hidden in laptop computers. Airline and travel groups are concerned about the possibility that a ban on laptops and tablet computers that currently applies to mostly Middle Eastern flights will be expanded to include US-bound flights from Europe.

The officials agreed to meet again next week.

The airlines are still talking to government officials about how a laptop ban would look at European airports. It will require one set of screening rules for US-bound travelers, another for people headed elsewhere.

Nearly 400 flights leave Europe for the US each day, carrying about 85,000 people, according to airline industry and US government figures. The flights are popular with vacationers and critical to many business travelers, who often buy pricier tickets.

The laptop ban in March covered far fewer flights – about 50 on an average day – and hurt Middle Eastern carriers by targeting their hub airports. Emirates blamed the ban among factors reducing demand when it scaled back flights to the US.

Expanding the ban to Europe will hit American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines and their European partners, and it will affect many more travelers.

Airlines fear that expanding the ban will lead to more flight delays and increase their liability for theft or damage to electronics devices in checked luggage. Safety advocates worry that putting devices with lithium batteries in the cargo hold will create a fire threat.

Airline groups propose several alternatives to the laptop ban, including more use of machines that detect residue from explosives, turning devices on to demonstrate that they are not bombs, and sorting low-risk passengers from high-risk ones, presumably to let frequent travelers keep their laptops in the cabin.