{"id":1135,"date":"2016-02-27T06:30:59","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T23:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/actlogistics.vn\/pilots-shippers-at-odds-over-icaos-battery-ban\/"},"modified":"2016-02-28T10:45:41","modified_gmt":"2016-02-28T03:45:41","slug":"pilots-shippers-at-odds-over-icaos-battery-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/pilots-shippers-at-odds-over-icaos-battery-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilots, shippers at odds over ICAO\u2019s battery ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>Various aviation groups are still reacting to the International Civil Aviation Organization\u2019s (ICAO) decision to temporarily ban the carriage of lithium batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft until a new packaging standard can be reached. The controversial issue has placed some groups in opposite camps.
\nFor instance, the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), applauded the ban, saying lithium-ion batteries pose \u201ca significant safety risk on passenger flights,\u201d adding that \u201cmore needs to be done to address the situation of bulk shipments of lithium-metal and lithium-ion batteries on cargo aircraft.\u201d However, the Global Shippers\u2019 Forum (GSF) said the decision to implement the ban on April 1 was \u201cdisappointing,\u201d because it ran counter to previous recommendations and \u201cdoes not address the wider problem of undeclared battery shipments or low-quality counterfeits.\u201d
\nInstead of a ban, GSF said it favors the recommendations by ICAO\u2019s Dangerous Goods Panel last October, which proposed that the shipment of lithium batteries on passenger aircraft should be allowed only if the batteries are charged to a limit not exceeding 30 percent of their full capacity, and that shippers would be limited to just one package per consignment for certain types of battery. This view has also been shared by the International Air Transport Associaiton (IATA).
\n\u201cGSF is surprised and disappointed that the ICAO National Council has gone against the recommendations of its own experts and instead instigated a ban which does not tackle the issue of undeclared lithium-ion battery shipments or unscrupulous companies deliberately shipping products with lithium batteries as normal cargo,\u201d GSF said in a statement this week. These undeclared batteries, the group added, are more likely to create a fire hazard, and that better screening equipment should be used.
\nALPA, however, countered that the ban needs to be extended to cover bulk shipments of batteries on maindeck freighters, as well. While U.S.-based cargo airlines haul the bulk of lithium batteries to North America, \u201cthe important ICAO dangerous goods safe transport requirements are exempted from these bulk shipments.\u00a0This is where the safety risk remains,\u201d the pilots\u2019 union said in a statement earlier this week.
\n\u201cALPA supports the continued development of a long-term plan that would allow safe shipment on all aircraft, but the shipments on cargo airlines must be addressed,\u201d the union continued. \u201cIf ICAO truly wants to make an impact, then it must deal with lithium battery shipments on cargo aircraft or, at the very least, reverse the exemptions that except these shipments from being fully regulated as dangerous goods.\u201d
\nALPA also said it supported the National Transportation Safety Board\u2019s safety recommendations, which called on the U.S. Department of Transportation to regulate battery shipments, and asked the U.S. Congress to pass \u201cmeaningful legislation\u201d that will classify lithium batteries as \u201cdangerous goods.\u201d
\nThe ICAO said that once the temporary ban begins on April 1, it will remain in effect until a new lithium-ion battery packaging performance standard can be hammered out \u2013 a process that may drag on into 2018 or beyond.
\nAlex Veitch, GSF\u2019s head of policy, said that the industry must speed up the process to solve this fire safety issue. \u201cICAO must now act rapidly to agree new packaging standards for lithium-ion batteries,\u201d he said. \u201cWe simply cannot wait until 2018 for resolution of the issue. The outright ban on passenger aircraft will cause a major disruption to the global supply chain for essential products vital to international trade.\u201d
\nSource: aircargoworld","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Various aviation groups are still reacting to the International Civil Aviation Organization\u2019s (ICAO) decision to temporarily ban the carriage of lithium batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft until a new packaging standard can be reached. The controversial issue has placed some groups in opposite camps. For instance, the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), applauded[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-helpfull-info","category-news","tag-airport-code"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1147,"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions\/1147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actlogistics.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}