AirTags have develop into a trending subject in journey throughout previous 12 months, touted as a easy and straightforward method for flyers preserve monitor of their checked baggage – even when their airline can’t.

The small gadget will be dropped into baggage and transmits its location to Apple gadgets, one thing that’s helped scores of passengers pinpoint the placement of a bag after being mishandled by their service.

Now, headlines have begun circulating that one of many largest airline teams will not permit them.

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“Baggage trackers belong to the class of transportable digital gadgets and are subsequently topic to the harmful items rules issued by the ICAO (Worldwide Civil Aviation Group) for carriage in plane,” Lufthansa spokesman Boris Ogursky mentioned in an emailed assertion . “Accordingly, on account of their transmitting perform, the trackers have to be deactivated in the course of the flight, much like cell telephones, laptops, tablets, and so forth.”

Whereas it might seem to be Lufthansa is transferring to ban the gadgets, it might be that the service hasn’t modified any coverage in spite of everything.

As a substitute, it appears it’s now simply imposing a longstanding prohibition that covers AirTags as their use in checked baggage has proliferated in latest months.

The prohibition is on the lithium-based batteries that energy the gadgets. Pointers from ICAO, the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group, will be strictly interpreted to imply that these gadgets are banned.

Lufthansa informed TPG it could reply with additional clarification past the above assertion, but it surely was unclear when which may come.

However Lufthansa’s obvious stepped-up enforcement of the ICAO pointers raises much more questions.

First, would possibly different airways cite the ICAO guidelines as extra vacationers use them? And, second, how will Lufthansa’s coverage be enforced? Clients is likely to be requested concerning the AirTags whereas checking baggage in, but when they are not — or in the event that they lie — safety screeners aren’t looking for the gadgets when baggage are checked in. Within the U.S., the Transportation Safety Administration explicitly permits AirTags in each checked and carry-on baggage.

All of it comes after a summer season of journey disruptions — together with at Lufthansa’s hub at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) — which coincided the AirTag’s rise to develop into a useful software for finding misplaced and mishandled checked baggage.

Now, clients of Lufthansa – in addition to Lufthansa Group carriers like Austrian, Swiss and Brussels – might should rethink the usage of AirTags.

What’s creating concern for AirTags in checked baggage is their lithium steel batteries, particularly a sort known as a CR2032, which is the scale of a small coin and historically powers wristwatches and key fobs for automobiles. They carry about 0.1 grams of lithium steel content material — a minuscule quantity.

However the ICAO rules cited by Lufthansa say all gadgets with lithium-powered batteries can’t be checked in the event that they can’t be powered off – like AirTags.

The priority has to do with hearth danger. It’s a lot simpler to extinguish an inflight hearth, utilizing onboard hearth extinguishers, when one thing catches hearth within the cabin. It’s not as straightforward to extinguish a fireplace within the plane’s cargo compartment.

However the danger is unclear for the small quantity of lithium current in AirTags: there aren’t any identified cases of the gadgets catching hearth within the cargo maintain of plane.

And, up to now, U.S. companies like FAA or TSA haven’t indicated they intend to comply with Lufthansa’s result in explicitly disallow the monitoring gadgets. Even Lufthansa has mentioned it is in favor of an exemption that may OK trackers with low battery and transmission energy for checked baggage.

For now, nonetheless, vacationers’ fast consideration will flip to see how Lufthansa enforces the steering – and to marvel if airways elsewhere on this planet might do the identical.

Matt Blake contributed reporting.