The United States may ban carrying laptops in aircraft cabins of all the international flights leaving and coming in to the country in an effort to heighten security against potential safety threats, the US Homeland Secretary John Kelly on Sunday said.
Kelly, in an interview on Fox News on Sunday, said that the US is planning to "raise the bar" on airline security, including tightened screening on carry-on items which passengers take in flight cabins.
"That's the thing that they are obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it's a US carrier, particularly if it's full of US people," Kelly said, according to Reuters.
The US government had imposed restrictions in March on carrying large electronic devices like ipads and laptops in aircraft cabins on flights from 10 airports in Muslim-majority countries, including United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey.
The ban is imposed on all the electronic devices larger than a smartphone, like laptops, tablets, cameras, electronic games and DVD players. People can still take their mobile phones in carry-on baggage, according to reports.
The US official has said that new security measures would be part of a broader airline security effort to combat what he called "a real sophisticated threat." He, however, added that no decision has been made as to when the ban on laptops on all international flights will be imposed.
"We are still following the intelligence," he said, "and are in the process of defining this, but we're going to raise the bar generally speaking for aviation much higher than it is now."
The report has concerned many airlines that a ban on laptops in flights would lessen customer demand. However, they have stated that they will comply with whatever new security measures are taken by the government, to avoid any incident on their flight.
"Whatever comes out, we'll have to comply with," Oscar Munoz, chief executive officer of United Airlines, said at the company's annual meeting last week.
