Qantas and Virgin Australia ban Apple MacBooks from being kept in checked-in luggage

Following on the footsteps of Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Jetstar, and Virgin Australia have also decided to ban Apple MacBooks on all their flights. The difference here is, while Singapore Airlines went for the total ban, Qantas and Virgin Australia have only banned the laptops inside the checked-in luggage.

With the ban, Virgin became the first airlines in Australia to ban Apple MacBooks on flights. The airline has now banned all the Apple MacBooks to be kept in checked-in luggage. The good thing is, Virgin will still allow passengers to carry MacBooks in their hand baggage.

The safety of our guests and crew is always our highest priority. Due to the worldwide recall of some Apple MacBooks, we are requesting all guests take their Apple MacBooks as carry-on luggage as a safety precaution.

– Virgin Australia

Following the ban, Qantas and Jetstar also announced that they will be banning all the Apple MacBooks from checked-in luggage until further notice. Like Virgin, Qantas and Jetstar will allow passengers to carry MacBooks in their hand baggage, provided the turned off for the duration of the flight.

All Apple MacBook Pros must be carried in cabin baggage and switched off for flight following a recall notice issued by Apple.

– Qantas and Jetstar

India, on the other hand, went a step further and banned all the 15-inch MacBooks sold between September 2015 and February 2017 from both checked-in and hand baggage. The ban will be in effect until they’ve been deemed safe by Apple or the user has received a battery replacement.

The issue here is that Apple MacBooks all look almost the same and it will tough to distinguish MacBooks at the airports. This can certainly cause confusion or delays as the only way to know for sure is to punch the serial number into Apple’s website.