Airline panics over dodgy Dell batteries

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Qantas has caused confusion over its decision to ban the use of Dell laptops with faulty batteries on all its flights.

In an advisory to staff and customers Qantas says that Dell laptops with batteries can't be used on flights on its aircraft following news of the product recall. But early reports suggest that Qantas is being overzealous and banning all Dell laptop operations.

One customer told the Sydney Morning Herald that he and others in their party had their Dell laptop batteries removed and the contact points taped over, despite none of the laptops being on Dell's warning list.

"They stopped me at the security gate where I was told I couldn't use my Dell laptop on the plane. I told them it wasn't one of the affected units but they said all Dell batteries had to be taped according to an agreement between Dell and Qantas," said Mitch Denny, a technology consultant, who frequently travels for business.

The advisory has also caused some confusion among Quantas' partners in the airline industry. BA, which operates a code sharing agreement with the Australian carrier, is clear that it has no problems with Dell hardware being used on its aircraft.

"Dell laptops are OK to use on BA flights," a spokesman confirmed.

"At BA we've standardised on Dell across the company and we've had all the laptops checked against the fault list, so we're very familiar with the issue."

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