Airlines move to ban certain unserviced MacBook Pro’s

If your daily workstation is a 2015 edition MacBook Pro, you’ll find airlines over the world no longer wanting it for travel… unless it’s had a battery swap.

If you’ve got a 15″ 2015 MacBook Pro, time to get the battery serviced… or don’t expect the device to travel – Image, Apple. 

Those who need to their laptops serviced should head to https://support.apple.com/en-gb/15-inch-macbook-pro-battery-recall, or bash down the door of your nearest Apple Service centre, Apple Store, or authorised service provider to get the updated battery installed.

This affects the  Mid-2015 15″ editions of the device sold by Apple between September 2015 and February 2017.

2015 13″ devices are unaffected by this recall, as other 15″ devices. Use the checker in the Apple support document to check if your device is affected.

(and on the plus side… a free new battery for this model of laptop is not to be sniffed at – with a nominal US$199/UK£199 battery service fee for the MacBook Pro with Retina screens)

And once you have that swap done travel with a copy of the paperwork to prove you’ve had the work done to it.

Airlines that have some sort of warning out there include:

• Qantas
• Virgin Australia (who have outright banned the entire product line from being carried as hold luggage)
• Singapore Airlines
• Thai Airways

In addition, the US FAA and EASA have issued guidelines on the MacBook Pro 15 usage and carriage in flight.

Li-ion battery fires are at best nasty and in the contained space of an aircraft – downright dangerous, be it in the passenger cabin (where the laptop batteries should be), or in the hold (where laptops definitely don’t belong if you’ve read any safety information when boarding an aircraft).

And if the picture in this report is anything to go by, shouldn’t you get your 2015 MacBook Pro 15″ serviced… now?

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