[Apologies if this has been discussed in another thread...]
* Thread title should have read "lithium battery powered devices"
Speculation thats all it is. It is impossible in this day and age to ban lithium batteries. You cant bring your iPad, your laptop or even your mobile phone. As most passengers have a business purpose for travelling they would be seriously impaired if they cant bring their laptop or mobile and that would have too much of an impact on the airlines bottom line.
I really can't see this being true. Effectively BA would be alienating 99% of their customers. The only people left flying would be the little old ladies in Hiddy's thread and they would have nobody left to give their sweets to!
Being banned from Cargo is more likely - but more likely that a requirement might be introduced re smaller batches and better fire insulation than an outright ban.
In the cabin the devices are spread about with lots of space (relatively) around them and any issues (e.g. heating up) more likely to be spotted.
The LCY-JFK service would be pretty rough without the iPads used as the IFE !
That article is full of 2+2=5 alarmist nonsense such as this
Quote:
“My dad is back in England at a funeral,” Elsdon told me. “He has his laptop and iPhone, and I’m hoping he’ll be able to get them home.”
Isn't the issue with this type of battery is that their use might pose a problem? If so, even if BA were to institute some ban it would be on the use of the device powered by the battery and not the actual device.
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Any airline that would ban them from the cabin would, more or less, fail. I would absolutely not fly them under any circumstances, and I can see that being true for 90+% of biz travelers.
Also, if BA banned Li-Ion batteries from the hold, they would also lose all of my World Cargo business - which admittedly isn't much - but I assure you I pay handsomely to transport those batteries.
But they can make all te policies they want, they just aren't practical to enforce. No Lithium batteries in checked bags, yeah right... Like the airport ground handlers have a means to differentiated them. And almost anything these days runs on them.
The same for cargo.... That's one of the areas where stringent controls on what's shipped are severly lacking. Not even on passenger planes that take some cargo.
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Well considering they are in the process of issuing all their pilots with IPads and all the SCCMs already have one, I very much doubt they are planning on banning them in the cabin area.
This most likely refers to carrying them in the hold but I thought there were already restrictions on this anyway, maybe they are going to be made stricter.
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(All my opinions are my own personal opinions and I do not speak for or on behalf of British Airways)
