Middle East airlines Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are offering passengers flying to the US free laptops and Apple iPads to use on flight after a recently-imposed electronics ban.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s administration imposed a ban on carry-on electronic devices on flights coming to the US from 10 airports in Muslim-majority countries. Doha in Qatar, and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were among the airports included.
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To counter this, the countries’ flag carriers have offered some customers loan devices. From April 2, Etihad Airways said first and business class passengers will have free Wi-Fi and iPads on all U.S.-bound flights from Abu Dhabi. Premium class guests to the US will get free Wi-Fi too.
Qatar Airways on Thursday announced plans to offer laptops on loan for all its US flights. The complimentary laptops will be available to business class passengers from next week. Qatar said it is offering a service at its gates where passengers with electronic items prohibited under US rules will be collected and securely packed.
“By providing this laptop loan service we can ensure that our passengers on flights to the U.S. can continue to work whilst on-board,” Akbar Al Baker, chief executive of Qatar Airways, said in a press release.
The UK has put similar restrictions to the U.S. in place, but the UAE and Qatar are not on the list of affected destinations.
[crp]
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