During testimony in Washington DC yesterday,  Homeland Security boss John Kelly signaled that he is prepared to expand the current Electronics Ban to include 71 airports around the world.

His premise for this threat stems from these 71 airports not meeting the screening standards that are expected of them by US security officials.    He declined to say which 71 airports he was referring to.

This list of 71 would most like include the 10 that are already on the list that prevents passengers from boarding with electronics larger than a typical smartphone.

He did say that any airport on the ‘banned list’ would have the opportunity to have itself removed if it upgraded its screening process to the level required by US Homeland Security.

For now, he did not indicated if, or when this extension would be put in place.

With all this said, it appears that Homeland Security may be softening its tone about the ban.   As little as 2 weeks ago, rumors started swirling that the ban would even affect flights departing the USA.   But in hearing Kelly’s comments yesterday, it appears that an airport may be exempt from a ban if it screens electronics ‘appropriately’.    I suspect that most if not all US airports have the ability to appropriately screen electronics, so I’m hopeful that the ban may not be an ‘all or none’ proposition.