Recently both USA and UK declared that travellers from a number of middle-eastern countries would not be able to travel to USA or UK with any electronics bigger than a smartphone.

Today Dubai-based airline Emirates announced that it will offer complimentary Microsoft Surface tablets loaded with Office 2016 to travellers on non-stop flights to the USA.

“Customers can download their work onto a USB which can be brought on board and plugged into the devices to continue working seamlessly,” Emirates said in a statement.

The tablets will unfortunately only be offered to travellers in the first and business class, but I suspect for that demographic this may be their first encounter with a premium Windows 10 device.

Etihad is offering complimentary iPads, which I suspect will be much less productive, while Qatar Airways will also be offering free loaner PCs for business class passengers.

Regular travellers will benefit from being able to hold on to their laptops until just before boarding, after which Emirates has an expedited process for stowing the laptops in the hold and returning them after the flight.