Delta Airlines now allows portable oxygen concentrators with a two-cell power cartridge or “double battery” on aircraft, thanks to advocacy efforts by PHA and oxygen users. The permitted batteries include Inogen and Sequal models that many people with pulmonary hypertension use.
Over the past two years, some airlines, including Delta, refused to allow passengers to carry on concentrators that use double batteries. Although federal regulations or the concentrators themselves hadn’t changed, airlines began interpreting and enforcing the existing regulation differently.
The Pulmonary Hypertension Association leads an effort by patient and health care provider groups to advocate with the Federal Aviation Administration, oxygen concentrator manufacturers and airlines to ensure that people can fly with their concentrators.
Delta reversed its policy after its engineers met with Inogen engineers to review the technical specifications of double-battery power cartridges.
Current FAA regulations require passengers to carry 150% battery power of batter power. For example, someone taking a six-hour flight must carry on enough batteries to power the concentrator for at least nine hours.
The regulations permit passengers to carry a certain number of lithium-ion batteries depending on size:
- 100 watts/hour or less: unlimited
- 101-160 w/h: three
- 161+ w/h: none
A single battery for a portable oxygen concentrator is about 92 w/h. For many years, airlines permitted single- and double-battery concentrators because each battery in a double-battery power cartridge was considered a separate battery.
More recently, some airlines began adding double battery wattage for a total of 184 w/h and refused to allow them on planes. As a result, some people with PH couldn’t flying because they couldn’t meet the FAA’s 150% power requirement without a double battery.
For more information about PHA’s oxygen advocacy efforts, email us or call 240-485-0749.
