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Qatar Airways Bypasses US Electronics Ban

Qatar Airways - flickr

Qatar’s national carrier, Qatar Airways, along with other regional carriers, have found a smart way around the United State’s electronics ban.

Last week, the US President Donald Trump signed an order that banned all sorts of electronic devices to board the cabins of airplanes coming in from the Middle East. The ban includes talblets, laptops, and device larger than the average smartphone. However, Qatar Airways has got your back.

The ban affects ten cities in the Middle East with predominantly muslim populations. They are Cairo in Egypt, Amman in Jordan, Kuwait City in Kuwait, Casablanca in Morocco, Doha in Qatar, Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Istanbul in Turkey, and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The US authorities claimed that the ban is a necessary measure to limit the risk of terrorist attacks involving commercial flights, which the country’s intelligence says is possible.

The ban sparked outrage around the world since tens of thousands of people fly out of these cities into American cities each week. And since the ban doesn’t target any specific airline or citizenship, it affects anyone travelling from these cities into the US, with not regards to travel reasons or nation of citizenship.

People were mostly outraged because direct flights from the Middle East to the United States are long flights, taking several hours. Frequent fliers usually take advantage of this time to finish work and follow up with news and trending topics, or simply need their computers for entertainment to pass the time.

Qatar Airways, however, have announced that passengers who just don’t want to be on a plane without a laptop can borrow one from the carrier. They have advised fliers to upload their documents onto a memory stick and bring it along on the flights. This way, they can finish any work they have pending or watch their favorite movie, without violating any US laws.

The United Kingdom introduced a similar ban few days after the US, but nor Qatar neither Qatar Airways were affected by it.

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