AviationAirlines ban shipments of lithium-ion batteries following cargo fires
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries may soon have to be imported by other means than air shipments after at least eighteen airlines have banned shipments of the product this year following devastating cargo fires such as the one that caused a United Parcel Service (UPS) freighter to crash near Dubai in 2010. Roughly 30 percent of the 5.5 billion cell batteries produced each year are shipped by plane.
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries may soon have to be imported by other means than air shipments after at least eighteen airlines have banned shipments of the product this year following devastating cargo fires such as the one that caused a United Parcel Service (UPS) freighter to crash near Dubai in 2010.
As Insurance Journal reports, pilots have been calling for the batteries to be taken off of all passenger flights until there is a better method safely to transport them. Four of the world’s top ten cargo carrier lines have removed the shipments, including Emirates, Cathay Pacific Airways, Cargolux Airlines International SA, and Qatar Airways. Additionally, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group, and United Airlines have banned them from all flights.
“In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t a difficult decision,” said Delta president Edward Bastian. “We’re a $40 billion company.”
Some have speculated that removing lithium-ion batteries from major air freight could disrupt the global supply chains for the technology, which is used to power products including Apple iPhones, laptops by Lenovo Group, and defibrillator power units. Roughly 30 percent of the 5.5 billion cell batteries produced each year are shipped by plane.
“Anybody that ships lithium batteries is affected by this,” said George Kerchner, the executive director of the Rechargeable Battery Association (PRBA). “It has an impact on everybody, whether you’re a small business or a large business.”
UPS and Fedex, the two largest carriers, have not removed any battery shipments.
In tests conducted by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2005 and 2006, the batteries were found to be able to burst open and spray highly flammable liquid which could ignite adjacent cells and lead to intensive fire.
Incidents of “fire, smoke, extreme heat and explosions” involving the batteries were reported to the FAA eleven times last year. In both the 2010 Dubai accident and a similar incident in 2011 over Australia, smoke filled parts of the plane, with it even entering the cockpit in the case of the 2010 case, which involved the transport of 81,000 units.
A meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal last month led to an agreement to set new standards for the transport of the batteries. The new rules are unlikely to be instituted, however, until 2017.
Until then, many carriers are taking extra precautions.
“You’ll see more and more operators voluntarily suspending shipments,” said Mark Rogers, the director of the Air Line Pilots Association International. “We’re going to see very few of them being shipped by air.”
