All incoming flights to the US will be subject to new security screening procedures, with both American citizens and foreigners possibly facing security interviews with airline employees.
The announcement from the US Transportation Security Administration comes after five global long-haul airlines - Air France, Cathay Pacific, EgyptAir, Emirates and Lufthansa - said they would begin the new security interviews starting on Thursday.
A sixth carrier, Royal Jordanian, said it would begin the new procedures in mid-January after US authorities granted its request for a delay in implementing the measures.
However, the airlines offered different descriptions of how the interviews would take place, ranging from another form a traveller would have to fill out to actually being questioned by an airline employee.
The new security measures come after the Trump administration previously rolled out a laptop ban and travel bans that have thrown the international travel industry into disarray.
The new rules also come at the end of a 120-day deadline for airlines to meet new US regulations following the ban on laptops in aeroplane cabins of some Mideast airlines being lifted.
"The security measures affect all individuals, international passengers and US citizens, travelling to the United States from a last point of departure international location," said Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the TSA. "These new measures will impact all flights from airports that serve as last points of departure locations to the United States."
She put the number of flights affected at around 2100 daily. She also said it would include "heightened screening of personal electronic devices" and stricter security procedures around planes and in airport terminals.
Air France said it will begin new security interviews on Thursday at Paris Orly Airport and a week later, on November 2, at Charles de Gaulle Airport. It said the extra screening will take the form of a questionnaire handed over to "100 per cent" of passengers.
Emirates said in a statement it would begin doing "pre-screening interviews" at its check-in counters for passengers flying out of Dubai and at boarding gates for transit and transfer flyers.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways said on its website that it had suspended self-drop baggage services and that passengers heading to the US "will be subject to a short security interview" when checking their luggage. Those without bags would have a similar interview at their gates.
EgyptAir said in a statement the new measures include more detailed searches of passengers and their luggage and interviews.
Germany's Lufthansa Group said the new rules came from the TSA.
"In addition to the controls of electronic devices already introduced, travellers to the USA. might now also face short interviews at check-in, document check or (their) gate," Lufthansa said in a statement.
