Qatar Airways has banned the carrying of battery-powered hoverboards on all aircraft as it says it continues to “put the safety of passengers and crew first”.
This follows concerns over the safety of hoverboards, which have caught fire due to being poorly manufactured and caused concern in the aviation industry.
Effective immediately, Qatar Airways says the ban applies to all small vehicles powered by lithium batteries as both checked-in baggage and as cabin baggage on all Qatar Airways flights. The ban applies regardless of the watt-hour rating of the lithium battery.
Qatar Airways senior vice President for safety and security, Ashish Jain, says “Qatar Airways has taken this responsible and necessary step as passenger and crew safety remain our utmost concern.
“Recent reports and new evidence has led to our decision to add hoverboards to our list of restricted items. Therefore we would like to notify passengers ahead of the busy travel season to ensure that no one is left unaware.
“Our priority is the safety of our passengers and staff, as such we cannot accept these items as either checked-in baggage or carry-on.”
The carrier says some examples of small lithium battery-powered vehicles are airwheel, solowheel, hoverboard, mini-segway and balance wheel.
Qatar Airways adds it is implementing the ban immediately due to concerns regarding the questionable quality of such items and the potential fire hazard associated with their batteries.
