EgyptAir (MS, Cairo International) and Royal Air Maroc (AT, Casablanca Mohamed V) have announced that they will be exempted from the US ban on large electronic items in cabins, effective July 12 and July 13 respectively.

"The ban on bringing laptops and other electronic devices into flight cabins on EgyptAir flights to New York will be lifted as of tomorrow and will remain in place for a year or until another emergency amendment is introduced," said EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Musallam. He added that the ban remained on flights to the United Kingdom.

The lifting of restrictions will apply to Royal Air Maroc's 2x daily Casablanca Mohamed V-New York JFK and 3x weekly Casablanca-Washington Dulles flights, and Egytpair's 1x daily Cairo International-New York JFK flight.

Introduced in March 2017, the ban on large personal electronic devices (i.e. larger than a smartphone) was intended as a prevention strategy, as it was believed that terrorists could use battery compartments to smuggle aboard bombs. Current security arrangements at the targeted airports were not considered sufficient to detect potential threats. The United States Department of Homeland Security has gradually been relaxing the ban over the past two weeks as airlines make security improvements.