US: Global airlines add security interviews on US-bound flights

Five global long-haul airlines will begin new security interviews of all passengers on US-bound flights starting Thursday at the request of American officials, the companies said Wednesday. Long-haul carriers Air France, Cathay Pacific, EgyptAir, Emirates, and Lufthansa all said they’d start the screenings. However, the airlines offered different descriptions of how the interviews would take place, ranging from another form a traveler would have to fill out to actually being questioned by an airline employee. It wasn’t immediately clear if other global airlines would be affected, though the Trump administration previously rolled out a laptop ban and travel bans that have thrown the international travel industry into disarray. The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, it comes at the end of a 120-day deadline for airlines to meet new US regulations following the ban on laptops in airplane cabins of some Mideast airlines being lifted. Air France said it will begin new security interviews on Thursday at Paris Orly Airport and a week later, on Nov. 2, at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Story has more specific details of airlines' responses.<br/>