DHS Plans to Roll Back Laptop Ban as it Beefs Up Security

Every commercial flight bound for the U.S. will be forced to tighten its security procedures or risk a total ban on large electronic devices from both the cabin and luggage compartments, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday.

The new security requirements will apply to more than 280 airports in 150 countries that serve as the last point of departure for commercial flights to the U.S., affecting about 180 domestic and foreign airlines.

"Make no mistake: Our enemies are constantly plotting to find new methods to hide explosives, recruit insiders and hijack aircraft," Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said at a conference in the nation's capital Wednesday. "It is time that we raise the global baseline of aviation security. We cannot play aviation whack-a-mole with each new threat."

Airlines that fly to the U.S. from 10 airports in the Middle East and North Africa have been barred since March from allowing passengers to bring their laptops and other large electronic devices into the cabin. Those airlines will be allowed to escape the so-called "laptop ban" by complying with the new security measures.

DHS officials offered few details about the new requirements and the potential threats that spurred the changes, citing security concerns.

The new precautions could include a larger number of K-9 units, a greater security presence around aircraft or the use of new electronic monitoring devices. They could also result in longer wait times, although a senior DHS official said the agency sought a "combination of measures that would cause a minimum of disruption to the traveling public."

The new requirements will affect the roughly 325,000 passengers a day who arrive in the U.S. on an average 2,000 flights daily.

The changes that passengers encounter, however, will vary airport to airport, depending on the extent each airport already complies with the new standards. For that reason, DHS officials said, airlines will take on the task of informing passengers of new security procedures that may affect their travel.

"Individual airlines will notify passengers of changes to security procedures," a senior DHS official said on a call with reporters. "Many of the airports … are probably pretty close to the global standard that we're discussing. And therefore the impact to those airports and the flying out of those airports will be minimal."

Speculation had run rampant that DHS was planning to expand the ban on laptops and other large electronic devices that it announced in March for flights to the U.S. from airports in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. DHS officials have spent the past few months meeting with their counterparts in Europe and other regions, as well as airline and airport executives, fueling speculation that the ban would soon encompass far more airports.

Instead, the new measures offer a way out from those restrictions: Airlines that meet the new standards – including those currently under the laptop ban – will be permitted to allow passengers to bring aboard large electronics.

Those that fail to do so, however, will face a ban not only on laptops in the cabin but in checked luggage as well, reflecting increasing concern about the threat electronics can pose in concealing explosives.

Retreating from the laptop ban does not mean that DHS overreacted in prohibiting large electronic devices from certain flights, officials said.

"I would strongly disagree with any assertion that there was an overreach in what we proposed and what we implemented previously. We're not rolling back those measures. What we did was work with airlines and airports to address the threat and the risk," a senior DHS official said during the press call.

In implementing the new standards, the agency's goal is to stop issuing a requirement for each threat that emerges – like the laptop ban – but instead to create a security posture that allows it to address vulnerabilities across the board.

"What we did before was addressing specifically a threat regarding large PEDs," the official said, referring to personal electronic devices. "What we're now doing is trying to address that threat as well as a more general raising of the bar."