It looks like the US isn’t alone in this. According to reports, it seems that airlines in other countries around the world have enacted similar bans. For example over in Japan the phone is also not allowed to be brought onto planes, along with New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and pretty much the majority of mainland Chinese airline companies.
Interestingly enough over in South Korea, the government still allows the phones to be brought onto planes as long as they are turned off and are in carry-on luggage. However they have banned it from flights to-and-from US, Canada, and Hong Kong, so basically it sounds like if you fly domestic or if you travel to other countries other than those three, you can still bring the phone with you.
Officials have acknowledged that this could be highly inconvenient for passengers who have yet to return their phone, but for the safety of all the other passengers, there really isn’t much choice. Last we checked, there are still around 1 million Note 7 handsets still in use.