The national carrier of Jordan, Royal Jordanian Airlines, announced that passengers

traveling from Amman to the United States will be allowed to bring their laptops and other electronic devices into the plane’s cabin.

Royal Jordanian is now the fifth Middle Eastern-based airline to be taken off the US’s exclusion list, which demands that passengers hand over their laptops, iPads and other electronics to airline officials to be stored out of reach of the passengers to the flight to the US. The ban made traveling to the US inconvenient, especially for businessmen who use their laptops for work while in flight.

The other four airlines who now meet the security standards of the US Department of Homeland Security are Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airline.
Beginning in March this year the US banned laptops and other larger electronics from the cabins of direct flights originating in 10 airports in eight countries: Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey, in fear that those devices could be used to hide explosives or other means of disrupting flights.

The ban was lifted from Royal Jordanian flights for the same reasons it was lifted from the other airlines, due to improved security processes by those airlines for their US-bound routes.

On June 29, the US announced more strict security measures for in-bound flights which will entail longer time for passenger screening and the examination of electronic devices for explosives. The measures are due to take effect within three weeks of the announcement. It is estimated that the upgraded screenings will affect 325,000 passengers each day, traveling on 180 airlines, from 280 airports all over the world.