Hong Kong Air Cargo Places Ban on Vivo Phones Following Airport Fire Incident

In the aftermath of the serious fire incident that occurred over the weekend, Hong Kong air cargo has placed a ban on all shipments from the local air freight companies as well as any co-loaders. The ban also extends to a full band on Vivo mobile phones.

According to communications from the airline, Hong Kong air will no longer accept cargo from Sky Pacific logistics HK and Cargo link Logistics HK until further notice and with immediate effect.

The images of engulfed shipments at Hong Kong airport have circulated on WhatsApp. Included in the freight was a batch of China manufactured Vivo smartphones and accessories heading to Bangkok, the Y20 model in particular.

According to reports, the mobile phones were loaded across three pallets all of which were engulfed in the flames. It took emergency services as much as 40 minutes to douse the flames. According to  local Media sources, although the airport operations were not affected, however, a 12 by 24 meter space was damaged on the tarmac.

In the past month, Hong Kong air cargo announced the partnership with Alibaba's Cainiao logistics networks which involved frequent flights to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Manila, almost cutting down half of Alibaba's delivery times for Thailand.

Although Guangdong is the primary location for the production of Vivo phones, the company has recently established inroads into the Indian market and has since started production in India. The company appointed Indian cricketer Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador, and has taken up the main sponsorship position for the Indian Premier League.

Since it was founded in 2009, Vivo has spread its footprints across Asia, and it announced in October that it would break into the European market.

In the past, there has been at least one claim of a Vivo phone exploding, however the biggest scandal involved in the company was in 2020 when an Indian police found that over 13,500 Vivo smartphones were using the same IMEI number- a code that should be unique to each phone.

Other airlines are yet to Ban carriage of the Vivo phone in question. In 2017 Samsung had to recall some S7 phones following reports of fires. However, this latest incident will undoubtedly trigger new scrutiny of the shipment of lithium-ion batteries and mobile phones.