Southwest limiting each passenger to one portable – Business News
Southwest Airlines is cracking down on portable chargers, rolling out a strict new coverage by which passengers can solely convey one charger each and are barred from placing the gadgets in overhead bins due to issues over midair fire dangers.
The Dallas-based provider stated vacationers shall be allowed simply one lithium-powered charger per particular person, capped at 100 watt-hours, and should keep the system both on their particular person or in a bag underneath the seat.
The transfer, reported on Wednesday by Fox Business, marks a important escalation in airline security guidelines surrounding so-called “power banks,” which have more and more been linked to onboard smoke and fire incidents.
Southwest Airlines is limiting passengers to one portable energy system and banning overhead storage as issues grow over onboard battery fires. REUTERS
In an inside message to workers, Dave Hunt, the airline’s vice president of security and security, stated the coverage — which takes impact April 20 — is geared toward strengthening the provider’s capability to “contain and mitigate lithium battery incidents, including reducing the risk of battery fires.”
Southwest stated it plans to notify clients of the adjustments at a number of factors earlier than journey — together with during reserving and check-in — in addition to by way of airport signage and onboard bulletins.
The airline added that entry to onboard energy will increase within the coming years, with plans to equip its whole fleet with in-seat energy by mid-2027 in an effort to scale back reliance on portable chargers.
Hunt stated the coverage displays Southwest’s broader security priorities, calling it half of the airline’s effort to improve its security tradition whereas lowering accidents, injury and security incidents.
“Our approach reflects our culture of safety and security in action: proactively managing risk and caring for our customers and people at every step,” Hunt stated.
The crackdown comes roughly a yr after Southwest first required passengers to keep portable chargers in plain sight whereas in use — a coverage designed to guarantee flight crews may shortly establish overheating gadgets earlier than they escalated into emergencies.
Under that rule, passengers have been barred from utilizing chargers whereas they have been saved in luggage or overhead bins.
Lithium-powered gadgets like portable batteries have been linked to a rising quantity of onboard smoke and fire incidents. o_lypa – stock.adobe.com
The airline is now going additional, proscribing how many gadgets passengers can convey and the place they will store them — highlighting growing alarm throughout the aviation industry over lithium battery dangers.
Air security skilled and retired United Airlines captain Steven Arroyo stated the new restrictions are a mandatory response to a doubtlessly catastrophic hazard.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction … to address the potential for these lithium batteries when they overheat leading to a thermal runaway,” he advised The Post.
Thermal runaway is a chain response by which a lithium battery overheats, releases flammable gases and might shortly ignite — typically reigniting even after being put out.
“That’s the worst thing you could have happening on board an airliner at 35,000 feet,” he added.
“It’s basically an uncontrollable fire,” Arroyo stated.
Airlines are tightening guidelines as crews face growing dangers from overheating batteries inside passenger cabins. andrey gonchar – stock.adobe.com
Recent incidents involving US carriers demonstrated how shortly these conditions can escalate — even when the gadgets themselves are small.
In 2016, an American Airlines flight from Detroit to Dallas was pressured to divert to Wichita Falls, Texas, after a energy pack emitted fumes and was suspected of coming into thermal runaway — the chain response that may lead to an uncontrollable fire.
Weeks later, a Delta Air Lines flight pushing back from the gate at Newark noticed a portable battery ignite inside a seat pocket, forcing crew members to act shortly to extinguish the system earlier than departure. The incident delayed the flight by more than half an hour, in accordance to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Other circumstances have unfolded midair. In 2022, flight attendants and crew aboard an American Airlines flight rushed to a laptop computer that started smoking and burning inside a passenger’s backpack, prompting an onboard response earlier than the airplane reached the gate.
In 2023, a Spirit Airlines flight from Dallas to Orlando was diverted to Jacksonville after smoke poured from an overhead bin — and changed into a fire when a bag was opened. Passengers suffered burns and smoke inhalation within the chaos.
Earlier this yr, a United Airlines flight was diverted when a passenger’s battery started smoking.
