Why You May Not Be Able to Fly with Your MacBook Pro Laptop

Travel insights from Andrea Sedlacek, editor of The Compass

Andrea Sedlacek Published August 30, 2019

If your MacBook Pro has a recalled battery, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will not allow you to fly with it. This means it cannot be in your carry-on OR your checked luggage.

This new rule comes after Apple announced a recall of 15-inch MacBook Pro batteries in June 2019, as they found that the batteries in a limited number of laptops sold between September 2015 and February 2017 could overheat and pose a fire safety risk. It’s not clear how the FAA can enforce this rule, but if you have a MacBook Pro with a recalled battery, it’s better to be safe and leave it at home than to start a small electrical fire on a plane and scar all of your fellow passengers for life.

The FAA's PackSafe for Passengers web page has general guidelines to help people fly and pack their luggage safely, and this rule is posted there, however it’s tricky to find and then a little vague (it does not list product or brand names).

So what’s a traveler with a MacBook Pro sold between September 2015 and February 2017 with a recalled battery supposed to do? Contact Apple to get your battery replaced and then you can continue to safely fly with it.

About the Author

As the managing editor of The Compass on VAX, Andrea is dedicated to delivering valuable, fun and grammatically correct content to her readers (without Oxford commas). Her experience writing and editing in the retail and insurance industries made the move to travel one of the most exciting things to happen in her career. What's the next most-exciting thing for her? Whenever the newest edition of the AP Stylebook comes out.

Follow Andrea on Twitter: @SedlacekAndrea