The IT Nerd

Well, the AirTag gong show that German airline Lufthansa created is over. To recap, the airline banned AirTags, though their justification was sketchy at best, before they decided to walk the whole thing back in a manner that didn’t help them. Now this statement from the airline has finally cleared this whole mess up:

German airline Lufthansa on Wednesday clarified its policy, saying in a statement that German aviation authorities had agreed with its risk assessment that tracking devices such as AirTags pose no safety risk.

“These devices are allowed on Lufthansa flights,” Lufthansa concluded. 

But I am going that these statements gave the German airline a bit of a nudge to make this issue go away:

Domestically, the Transportation Security Administration has said baggage trackers are allowed in checked and carry-on luggage. Brett Snyder, president of the air travel industry blog Cranky Flier, said regulators are responsible for keeping up with changing consumer technology that may pose safety concerns aboard planes. 

“The airlines, until they have clarity, can interpret [regulations] however they see fit,” Snyder said. “And Lufthansa tends to be a very conservative company, so it’s not surprising they’d default to ‘you can’t use this.’” 

Apple said in a statement that AirTags are “compliant with international airline travel safety regulations for carry-on and checked baggage.”

My thought is that this combined with the public blowback forced Lufthansa into a position where they had to put an end to this if for no other reason to stop looking like a dummkopf. The only upside to this gong show is that this will likely dissuade any other airline from trying this. After all, this attempt to ban AirTags wasn’t done for safety reasons. It was done because the airline has a habit of losing luggage and doesn’t want to be called out for it. Perhaps they need to go fix that issue rather than try to ban AirTags to cover up their mistakes. Just a thought.

This entry was posted on October 13, 2022 at 8:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.