US to ban laptops on flights from Europe

The US is expected to broaden its ban on in-flight laptops and tablets to include planes from the European Union, a move that would create logistical chaos on the world's busiest corridor of air travel.

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Alarmed at the proposal, which airline officials say is merely a matter of timing, European governments held urgent talks with the US Department of Homeland Security on Friday.

The ban would affect trans-Atlantic routes that carry as many as 65 million people a year on over 400 daily flights, many of them business travellers who rely on their electronics to work during the flight.

The ban would dwarf in size the current one, which was put in place in March and affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East.

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A French official who was briefed about Friday’s meeting said the Americans announced they wanted to extend the ban, and the Europeans planned to formulate a response in coming days.

The official said the primary questions revolved around when and how - and not whether - the ban would be imposed.

Jenny Burke, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said no final decision has been made on expanding the restriction.

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However, Homeland Security officials met with high-ranking executives of the three leading US airlines - American, Delta and United - and the industry’s leading US trade group Airlines for America on Thursday to discuss expanding the laptop policy to flights arriving from Europe.

Two airline officials who were briefed on the discussions said Homeland Security gave no timetable for an announcement, but they were resigned to its inevitability.

The US airlines still hope to have a say in how the policy is put into effect at airports to minimise inconvenience to passengers.

The initial ban on passengers bringing large electronics devices into the cabin hit hardest at Middle Eastern airlines.

Emirates, the Middle East’s largest airline, cited the ban on electronics as one of the reasons for an 80% drop in profits last year.

It said the ban had a direct impact on demand for air travel into the US and it faced rising costs from introducing complimentary laptop loans to some passengers.