Lufthansa Says Apple AirTags Are Once Again Allowed in Checked Bags
By the end of the first week in January, more than 400,000 airline seats could be packed in the cargo holds of airlines around the world, thanks to Apple’s new iPhone-enabled i-Pads. The new AirTags, which are like any other tag, attach to an i-Pad and allow customers to add additional information when they are checking their luggage.
We took a look at the new technology — whether it’s still necessary, whether the airlines will actually adopt it– and whether the airlines will use the technology to its full potential.
This week, the U.S. government’s Aviation Safety Advisory Committee announced its final recommendations on the issue of check bags. They include recommendations to ban the use of electronic check-in baggage information cards, which would have prevented the use of i-Pads in checked bags. The recommendation is included in the report entitled “Passenger Safety Report to Congress (December 2007), FAA Airmen and Flight Attendants Safety Committee (August 2006).
The committee’s report, which is available online, found the i-Pads would only be used by people who are very familiar with them (like flight crews and pilots) or people whose needs were not being met by current checked baggage systems.
Additionally, the committee found that the i-Pads may be used by “unreliable, dishonest” travelers who “will use them to commit fraud or violate other airport laws.” The report also recommended the FAA limit travelers to two i-Pads per flight.
The committee also recommended passengers carrying a “tamper-resistant device” — such as a credit card, a cellphone or a digital camera — instead of a laptop or tablet computer should not be allowed to use i-Pads.
That recommendation is included in the report’s “Tolerations and Exceptions” section. It states:
FAA should not permit the use of [i-Pads] for transportation of personal items (e.g., laptops, digital cameras