The US Transport Security Administration’s (TSA) move to ban laptops and iPads in handbags from airports in West Asia and Africa including on flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi will prove a major boon for Air India and other Indian and American carriers that have direct flights linking the two countries.
BBC reported that the US has announced a ban on large electronic devices in cabin baggage on passenger flights from airports in eight Muslim-majority countries — Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Jeddah, Doha, Kuwait and Istanbul. The airlines likely to be affected are Emirates, Qatar Airways, Saudi, Etihad and Turkish.
“Techies normally finish their last-minute work on their laptops or iPads as the flights from India to the US are very long. If they do not have access to their laptops and iPads on some carriers, then obviously there will be a pick-up in the number of passengers on other airlines like Air India, which are not affected by the ban. At the moment, it is too early to give any numbers,” a senior Air India official told BusinessLine .
The Maharaja operates a daily service from India to Newark and John F. Kennedy airports, both airports in New York apart from a daily flight to Chicago. Besides this, it offers a six-times-a-week connection between India and San Francisco. On the cards is a direct service to Washington DC later this year.