Concerned over a growing number of lithium battery fires has Southwest Airlines revising its policy around passengers’ use of portable chargers.
The airline announced that passengers will have to keep their chargers in plain view beginning May 28. Passengers who use Southwest’s app, officials said, may have already seen announcement of the new policy.
While Southwest is the first U.S. airline to restrict the use of portable chargers, according to an Associated Press report, some Asian airlines took action earlier this year after a fire aboard an Air Busan plane waiting to take off from an airport in South Korea in January.
There have already been 19 incidents involving lithium-ion batteries this year, following last year’s record high of 89, according to Federal Aviation Administration statistics.
The incidents have more than doubled since the pandemic-era low of 39 in 2020, and have climbed annually, the AP reported.
Compared to the roughly 180,000 flights U.S. airlines operate each week, the number of incidents is still relatively small and lithium batteries can overheat anywhere. However, this is a growing concern for the airlines, the AP reported.
Passengers on Korean airlines can’t store the chargers in overhead bins anymore; they must either be packed in a plastic bag or have their ports covered with insulating tape to keep them from touching metal.
In addition, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways both prohibit the use or charging of portable power banks at all during flights, according to the AP. Southwest said that requiring these chargers to be kept out in the open when they are being used will help because “in the rare event a lithium battery overheats or catches fire, quick access is critical and keeping power banks in plain sight allow for faster intervention and helps protect everyone onboard.”
