Global aviation security is undergoing another change, this time in response to measures laid out by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly earlier this year.
Foremost among the changes, which affect all 180 airlines and 280 last-point-of-departure airports globally, are the lifting of restrictions on large personal electronic devices. Previously, 10 airports and nine airlines from the Middle East and North Africa had been banned from hosting any electronics larger than a cell phone on flights to the United States. Since those airports and airlines have complied with the first phase of enhanced security measures, however, the restrictions have been removed, leaving no airlines across the world currently under U.S.-inflicted restrictions for large personal electronic devices.
That ban had included many things typical for modern travelers–laptops, tablets, e-readers, cameras, portable DVD players and gaming devices larger than a smartphone. While it had always been labeled as impermanent, concerns had been raised over the fact that it had never been given an expiration date.
All airlines that fly to the United States are still subject to its security requirements and to the directives of the Transportation Security Administration.