Spinal Hub

SpinalHub was contacted about the air travel article http://www.spinalhub.com.au/transport-travel/article/Air_travel Here is his email -
"I am organising a bicycle ride for Cystic Fibrosis with electrically assisted bicycles in Asia - as with my condition the ride would be near impossible without electric assistance. Theoretically the airlines won't carry the Lithium bike batteries because they are above 160WHr. The average electric modern wheelchair would have 50x that. Do people with wheelchairs have trouble at airports? The only Lithium batteries allowed are those for phones and other small equipment they tell me. Maybe you need to revise the travel advice as people change from Lead Acid (wet) batteries to the (dry) Lithium batteries."

Here is a response from Peter Van Benthem, Information/Peer Support, AQA

Re spinal hub Dangerous Goods (DG) bike “Lithium Battery”

Mmmm the forever changing policies of air-carriers, this can be hard to keep up with but important to follow up on when choosing the right air carrier for your travel needs.

When booking a Air-Carrier from Australia, it is the person whos name is on the ticket responsibility to follow all special needs requirements regarding themselves and their equipment or their ticket can be made invalid on the spot with no refund in some cases. – All air carriers have their requirements on the internet for consumers to read – but different air carriers have different rules and reading the requirements/policies can time so…

These individual problems with air travel are coming up for more often, but this question is the first I ‘have had with Lithium Batteries.

Maybe you can send the Batteries ahead or find a way that meets the requirements. Also it would be interesting to know what other air carriers policies are…

If you need some help finding a solution please ring or contact us, either way I would like to know the outcome for further reference.

Thank you
Regards

Peter
Peter Van Benthem
Information / Peer Support

Here are some interesting links

http://mytravelscoot.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/lithium-ion-battery-refused-on-alaska.html

http://www.airsafe.com/issues/baggage/batteries.htm