The recent surge in Middle East conflict has sparked safety fears over potentially explosive devices at a major airline, leading to a comprehensive ban on pagers and walkie talkies. Emirates Airlines, in announcing the ban, stated that these devices would be seized from travellers by police.

On September 17, Israel marked the start of a new phase in their ongoing Gaza war, by simultaneously detonating thousands of pagers and walkie talkies across neighbouring Lebanon. The assault exposed that their intelligence service had embedded remote-controlled explosives in tens of thousand of handheld devices, causing 42 deaths and injuring over 3000.

Although this attack wounded numerous Hezbollah soldiers, many of these devices had also ended up in civilian hands, raising broader security concerns about their distribution. Three weeks later, the Saudi Arabian airline implemented a ban on all pagers and walkie-talkies from cabins and checked luggage, amid continuing fears that these devices could explode.

As the largest airline in the region, operating more than 3600 flights across the Middle East every week, this security alteration could impact millions of passengers. This ban applies to all Emirates flights landing in Dubai.

An announcement on the Emirates website clearly states: “All Passengers travelling on flights to, from or via Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers and walkie talkies in checked or cabin baggage.

“Such items found in passengers’ hand luggage or checked baggage will be confiscated by Dubai Police.”

The leading airline has also suspended all flights to Lebanon due to the intensifying rocket exchanges between the militant faction Hezbollah and Israeli forces, including routes to Iran and Iraq as the conflict’s reach extends. “We continue to closely monitor the situation in the region and are in contact with the relevant authorities regarding developments,” Emirates said.

Given the ongoing operations of the Israel Defence Forces in southern Lebanon, which include regular bombings on populated areas like Beirut, these measures are expected to persist. The Foreign Office has issued a notice to travellers highlighting that tensions could “escalate quickly and pose risks for the wider region.”