All U.S.-bound flights face new screening
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — All incoming flights to the United States will be subject to new security screening procedures, including both American citizens and foreigners possibly facing security interviews from airline employees, a U.S. government official said Wednesday.
The announcement from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration comes after five global longhaul airlines — Air France, Cathay Pacific, EgyptAir, Emirates and Lufthansa — said they would begin the new security interviews starting Thursday. A sixth carrier, Royal Jordanian, said it would begin the new procedures in mid-January after U.S. authorities granted RJ’s request for a delay in implementing the measures.
However, the airlines offered different descriptions of how the interviews would take place, ranging from another form a traveler would have to fill out to actually being questioned by an airline employee.
U.S. carriers also will be affected by the new rules. Delta Air Lines said it was telling passengers traveling to the U.S. to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their flight and allow extra time to get through security. United declined to comment, while American did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It wasn’t immediately clear when the U.S. carriers would begin the procedures.
The new security measures come after the Trump administration previously rolled out a laptop ban and travel bans that have thrown the international travel industry into disarray.
The new rules also come at the end of a 120-day deadline for airlines to meet new U.S. regulations following the ban on laptops in airplane cabins of some Mideast airlines being lifted.
“The security measures affect all individuals, international passengers and U.S. citizens, traveling to the United States from a last point of departure international location,” said Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the TSA. “These new measures will impact all flights from airports that serve as last points of departure locations to the United States.”
She put the number of flights affected at around 2,100 daily. She also said it would include “heightened screening of personal electronic devices” and stricter security procedures around planes and in terminals.
Air France said it will begin new security interviews on Thursday at Paris Orly Airport and a week later, Nov. 2, at Charles de Gaulle Airport. It said the extra screening will take the form of a questionnaire handed to “100 percent” of passengers.
Emirates said it would begin doing “pre-screening interviews” at its check-in counters for passengers flying out of Dubai and at boarding gates for transit and transfer fliers.
“These measures will work in complement with the current additional screening measures conducted at the boarding gate,” it said.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said on its website that it had suspended self-drop baggage services and that passengers heading to the U.S. “will be subject to a short security interview” when checking their luggage. Those without bags would have a similar interview at their gates.