This important announcement has been received from Qantas Freight.
Following an internal safety assessment, Qantas Freight and appointed handling agents will no longer accept shipments of UN3480 lithium ion batteries for carriage on any Qantas Group aircraft.
The restriction will take effect on 1 April 2015 and applies to all domestic and international Qantas, Jetstar and QantasLink passenger services as well as all Qantas Freight domestic and international freighter services.
Please be aware that there is no change to acceptance of shipments of UN3481 lithium ion batteries packed with or contained in equipment. These goods continue to be carried on both our passenger and freighter aircraft.
While it is important that we restrict routine transportation of UN3480 lithium ion batteries, we recognise that these commodities play a role in a range of urgent life-saving devices. We will continue to work with customers to accept small quantities that are urgently required and where no other means of transport is available. Please contact your local sales representative for conditions of carriage.
JETS Transport Express continues to offer carriage of UN3480 lithium ion batteries on its specialist interstate road transport network, which services major cities across Australia. This multi-modal network enables Qantas Freight to continue offering supply chain support to critical industries that use lithium ion batteries.
Safety is the Qantas Group’s first priority. This change of carriage policy has been introduced in the context of an ongoing review by aviation safety regulators, following discussions with aircraft manufacturers and an internal risk assessment process. The change aligns with similar policy changes introduced by several of our alliance and code share partners.
