A United Nations aviation board has ordered a ban on carrying lithium-ion batteries as cargo on passenger planes starting in April. Thankfully, customers will still be permitted to carry their devices with lithium ion batteries, but airlines won’t be able to ship large quantities via passenger airplanes.
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The International Civil Aviation Organization’s 36-state governing council said the prohibition would be in effect as of 1 April and remain in force until a new fire-resistant packaging standard was created to transport the batteries.
While non-rechargeable lithium metal batteries have already been banned from cargo holds on passenger flights, the ban has now expanded to the rechargeable versions, like the ones found in cellphones, laptops and cameras.
The ban does not apply to batteries packaged inside equipment like a laptop.
ICAO Council President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu reportedly said in a statement that the new packaging standard is expected by 2018. It added that the transport restriction could lead to “significant disruption in the logistics supply chain”, especially for medical devices. Around 5.4 billion lithium-ion cells were manufactured in 2014, which means more than one and a half billion of them are taking a plane ride. Three cargo jets have been destroyed since 2006, killing four pilots, due to fires that were either caused by lithium-ion batteries or exacerbated by their close proximity, according to subsequent investigations.
It’s not unusual for tens of thousands of batteries to be shipped in a single cargo container.
The Air Line Pilots Association said lawmakers should have enacted a ban of their own to show the U.S.is serious about preventing fires on-board planes that have been associated with the lithium batteries in recent years. Representatives from the Netherlands and France on the unsafe goods panel voted last fall against a ban.
The battery industry and manufacturers of consumer electronics that rely on the batteries also opposed the ban.
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The group that lobbies for battery markers in Washington, PRBA – The Rechargeable Battery Association, said the “decision by the ICAO Council was not unexpected”, although its industry strongly disagrees with the regulators’ conclusions. It also imposed new limits on small packages of batteries.
