The big three Gulf carriers - Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways - have dramatically increased services to the US.

The US decision to ban electronic items excluding mobile phones for flights coming inbound from the Middle East comes amid a dramatic expansion in services originating from the region to the country.

In little over a decade the number of direct monthly flights between the countries affected by the ban and the US has gone up from 267 in 2004 to 3,098 in 2016.

That expansion has been spurred largely by Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, and Turkish Airlines.

Their growth has not come without criticism, especially from some of their US rivals, who have been pressuring the US government to act against them.

READ MORE: Laptops, tablets to be banned on Middle East-US flights