Major airline Virgin Atlantic has eased its restrictions on laptops today, allowing both Dell and Apple laptops to be used on board as long as their serial numbers have been checked by a member of the in-flight cabin crew. This comes no more than a week after the airline banned the use of Dell and Apple laptops on their flights following the same kind of ban from Australian airline Qantas. The whole shenanigan started with faulty Sony batteries supplied to laptop manufacturers all over the world including Dell and Apple, some of whose laptops started to explode.

Virgin Atlantic has trained its cabin crew to check the laptop batteries, and Virgin Atlantic has said that if a battery is not on the recall list, then the laptop can be used without restriction. However, if the suspect laptop does in fact come fitted with one of the affected batteries, then it must be removed immediately. "In cabins where the seats are fitted with in-seat power supplies... Leads/adaptors will be offered," the airline said. "Any removed or spare batteries must be individually wrapped/protected and placed in your carry-on baggage. This is limited to two batteries per passenger."

Virgin says that the extra security measures will be lifted once the safety issues had been fully resolved. Watch this space; Qantas will probably be making the same changes to their policies too. If you are in any doubt about whether or not you will be able to use your laptop in-flight, we advise that you contact your airline before the flight.