The confusion started when a tweet was sent from Lufthansa’s official Twitter account in response to a query. In that tweet, Lufthansa had said that “Lufthansa is banning activated AirTags from luggage as they are classified as dangerous and need to be turned off.”
However, the company has clarified that it hasn’t banned AirTags from its flights. According to a report by 9to5Mac, a Lufthansa spokesman told Airways Magazine that there is no ban on AirTags. Having said that, the company did mention that “standing ICAO regulation on such devices, but this has nothing to do with Lufthansa or any other carrier.” Lufthansa had earlier said that the ICAO or International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines stated that objects with a transmission function must be deactivated during a flight.
What Lufthansa had said earlier
“According to ICAO guidelines, baggage trackers are subject to the dangerous goods regulations. Furthermore, due to their transmission function, the trackers must be deactivated during the flight if they are in checked baggage and cannot be used as a result,” Lufthansa had said in another tweet.
ICAO has guidelines regarding electronic devices but they are limited to mainly devices that have lithium ion batteries. AirTag, on the other hand, have a CR2032 battery — the same one found in traditional watches as well.
AirTag is a rather useful device to have in your luggage as you can track in case it goes missing. There have been multiple reports about users putting an AirTag in their baggage and later tracking them when the airlines has misplaced it.
