US, EU in urgent talks on expanding laptop ban on flights
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European governments are holding urgent talks Friday with the US Department of Homeland Security, alarmed at a proposed expansion of the US ban on in-flight laptops and tablets to include planes from the EU.
Such a move, which some airline officials expect will happen, would create logistical chaos on the world's busiest corridor of air travel—as many as 65 million people fly on trans-Atlantic routes a year. The current ban, in place on 10 mostly Middle Eastern cities since March, affects about 50 flights per day.
Chief among the concerns are whether any new threat prompted the proposal, said European Commission transport spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, who confirmed the talks. She said the EU had no new information about a specific security concern. US officials have said the decision in March to bar laptops and tablets from the cabins of some international flights, mostly from the Mideast, wasn't based on any specific threat but on longstanding concerns about extremists targeting jetliners.
