Starting today, the Department of Homeland Security issued a ban on all electronics larger than a smartphone to be carried in the hand luggage from airplanes arriving into the USA from the airports that are considered risky. Regardless of the passenger’s citizenship if you travel to the USA and your Last Point of Departure is one of the Airports listed below you will have to place all your electronic devices, except your smartphone into the checked baggage.
Airports affected by the electronics ban.
- Ataturk, Istanbul, Turkey
- Queen Alia International, Amman, Jordan
- The international airport of Cairo, Egypt
- King Abdulaziz International, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- King Khalid International, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- The Kuwait International Airport
- Mohammed V International Airport, Casablanca, Morocco
- Hamad International, Doha, Qatar
- International Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Abu Dhabi International, United Arab Emirates
This means that if you buy a cheaper airline ticket to the US but with a stopover in Istanbul for example, the new rules will affect us even if you started from a safe airport, like Zagreb. According to the statement, this ban is placed due to concerns of attempts by terrorist groups to circumvent aviation security and terrorist groups continue to target aviation interests. The ban includes the major international airports such as Istanbul and Doha, which means that even if you have a flight with one stopover in Istanbul or to these airports and then to the US, you must pay attention to the new rules, which will apply.
On their website Turkish Airlines has already posted announcement saying - Due to the most recent declaration that we’ve received from the concerned authorities, as Turkish Airlines we kindly inform our passengers that any electronic or electrical devices larger than a cell phone or smartphone (except medical devices) must not be transported on board in our flights arriving to the US destinations. However, those passengers will be easily able to transport their mentioned devices in the baggage hold area of the aircraft.
There is no impact on domestic flights in the US and for flights departing from the United States, where electronic devices will continue to be allowed on all flights.
