Cargolux Expands Ban on Lithium Ion Batteries as Bulk Freight

By Robert Wall 

LONDON--Europe's largest freight-only carrier, Cargolux Airlines International SA, said on Tuesday it would temporarily stop carrying some lithium batteries on its cargo jets amid a global review of such shipments.

The suspension of such shipments would begin May 1, the Luxembourg-based carrier said in a statement. The ban on bulk shipments expands the type of lithium batteries Cargolux won't carry, though it doesn't cover some power cells packed with or used in equipment, the carrier said.

Lithium batteries, when packed tightly, can overheat or catch fire if they suffer damage or experience short circuits. They have been implicated in intense, quickly spreading fires that brought down two jumbo freighters and ravaged another big cargo jet on the ground in the past nine years.

Aviation safety experts are meeting in Montreal under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization, an arm of the United Nations, to debate options including temporarily keeping bulk shipments of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries off all passenger aircraft until enhanced packaging requirements and other protections are in place.

Unlike earlier meetings of the same group of experts, this time Boeing Co., Airbus Group NV and other plane makers in principle support such a suspension, amounting to a major tightening of current global shipping standards developed by the ICAO.

Cargolux said it took its decision "after reviewing new information released by the FAA, Boeing and ICAO regarding the effectiveness of the onboard fire extinguishing systems in case of lithium ion battery fires and the temperatures that such fires can develop."

Cargolux said it would explore whether technologies were available that would allow the safe shipment of lithium ion batteries in bulk.

Write to Robert Wall at [e-mail]

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