Qatar Airways Would Have Least Of The Problems In Proposed Expanded Electronics Ban

With such speculations going around about the potential of expanding the electronics ban for flights going to the United States, it pushes various airlines on handling this policy. But a CEO of a huge airline alliance said that top tier airline Qatar Airways is having the least of the problems with that.

In an article published by Runway Girl Network, Oneworld, where Qatar Airways is a member, CEO Rob Gurney acknowledged that discussions are ongoing about the electronics ban and the challenges are unlikely to be met with a simple solution. However, Qatar Airways will not have a huge problem with the policy given that it is already subjected to various policies.

Gurney said that with Qatar Airways already being subjected to various policies, other airlines could learn from their experiences and apply it to them once the expanded electronics ban will take place. They could learn more from the mentioned airlines as they are facing problems after six Arab countries cut their ties with the country of Qatar for the grounds of alleged terrorist groups ties.

In an article published by The Points Guy, Gurney shared his first-hand experience with how Qatar Airways has handled the electronics ban in a flight from Doha to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, saying that their approach if effective. However, he said that the airline's approach may not be applicable everywhere.

"Each operating environment is quite different and what we might be able to achieve at airport X might be very different to what you can do at airport Y or Z because of the airport design or infrastructure," he said. He also said that homogenous solutions are not necessarily always translate into executed solutions as to what Qatar Airways had.

Qatar Airways already benefits from having a secondary security screening at the gate for US-bound flights. Most airports do not have this type of a setup so it could mean massive challenges beyond the volume of labor required in managing the laptops being checked at the gate.