A global airlines group urged governments Wednesday to look for alternatives to extending a cabin ban on large electronics devices, saying such a move could cost passengers about $1.1b a year and create new safety risks. US and EU officials are due to meet later on Wednesday to discuss aviation security, with the US Department of Homeland Security having said an extension of the ban, which currently affects flights from the Middle East and north Africa, was likely. Airlines, airports and pilots groups have raised concerns over the possible disruption and fire risks of placing large numbers of devices with lithium-ion batteries in the hold. EU officials have also asked the United States to share its intelligence, saying they don't see evidence for restrictions. The IATA, which represents 265 airlines, said that while current restrictions on laptops in cabins on flights from the Middle East and north Africa affect 350 flights a week, some 390 flights a day would be impacted if it was extended to European airports. In a letter to US Homeland Security chief John Kelly and EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc, IATA head Alexandre de Juniac called on governments to consider alternatives to a ban, such as methods to detect traces of explosives at airport security checkpoints, better training of staff and use of behavioral detection officers.<br/>
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Airline passengers have become hooked on their laptops and tablets to get work done or just kill time during long flights. But U.S. aviation-security officials appear determined to ban large electronic devices in the cabin of flights from Europe. Business travelers are worried about lost productivity, laptops in checked baggage being stolen or damaged, or even leaving the machine home if their employer won't let them check it on a plane. Parents are pondering how to keep children occupied. On Wednesday, US and European Union officials exchanged information about threats to aviation, believed to include bombs hidden in laptop computers. Airline and travel groups are concerned about the possibility that a ban on laptops and tablet computers that currently applies to mostly Middle Eastern flights will be expanded to include U.S.-bound flights from Europe. The officials agreed to meet again next week. The airlines are still talking to government officials about how a laptop ban would look at European airports. It will require one set of screening rules for US-bound travelers, another for people headed elsewhere. Nearly 400 flights leave Europe for the US each day, carrying about 85,000 people, according to airline industry and US government figures. <br/>
The simmering debate over whether to put US air-traffic control under a nonprofit corporation burst into the open as an airline trade group accused the government of being “hopelessly dysfunctional” in a letter to a senior senator. Airlines for America accused the FAA of overstating its progress in modernising the current flight-monitoring system and said the agency had repeatedly bungled technology programs. The system “is broken beyond repair within the constraints of government,” said the Airlines for America’s letter to Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who is chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The letter was obtained by Bloomberg News ahead of a congressional hearing Wednesday on the future of air-traffic control. The trade group’s missive represented a significant escalation in the rhetoric over a controversial proposal endorsed by President Donald Trump to spin off the FAA’s air-traffic operations into a nonprofit.<br/>
US government officials on Thursday are set to begin investigating Boeing's unfair trade claims against Canadian rival Bombardier, a two-track action that could lead to US duties on Bombardier's new jetliner and also pits Boeing against Delta. The US Commerce Department is poised to announce the launch of its investigation. US International Trade Commission (USITC) staff will hear testimony from both companies and from Bombardier customer Delta in the case. Boeing alleges that Bombardier's new 100-150 seat CSeries jetliners are being dumped below cost in the US market and are unfairly subsidised by Canadian taxpayers. Delta agreed last year to buy dozens of CSeries planes at a price that Boeing says was well below Bombardier's cost and risks eroding future sales of its 737 and new 737 MAX narrowbodies. Bombardier has countered that the petition would have a serious impact on airlines, innovation and competition in the aerospace industry.<br/>