Virgin Atlantic has confirmed that it is temporarily restricting the use of Dell and Apple laptops on its flights as the summer of battery problems threatens to have more significant effects on business.

In a move prompted by recent issues relating to overheating cells manufactured by Sony, the airline said cabin staff will ask all users of Dell and Apple portables to remove batteries from the products when onboard.

That will mean only users in Premium Economy and Upper Class - respectively Virgin’s business and first-class categories - will be able to use their Dell or Apple computers on board as Virgin Economy seats do not have access to power.

“Since the situation with Dell and Apple laptops we’re asking passengers to use seat power sockets,” a spokeswoman said. “Customers are only able to use the laptop if the battery is removed.” Virgin “is closely monitoring the situation” to restore laptop usage rights to travellers when it is considered safe, she added.

In a statement, Dell said, “Customers have been advised that they can continue to safely use the system on AC power and with the battery removed if they have a battery that is subject to this recall. It’s important to note that the vast majority of notebook computer users are not affected by this recall and can safely operate their notebook computers as they had before.”

However, Virgin said cabin crew could not be expected to check every Dell or Apple laptop to ensure safety. Some users accustomed to working on the transatlantic flights for which Virgin is best known said the inability to use laptops on the journey would force them to reconsider their options.

“It’s a pain,” said the marketing head of a consulting services firm and Dell laptop user. “If you can’t get your travel people to upgrade you, the other possibility is to use another laptop but that means swapping programs and data.” He added that his firm had discussed procuring ruggedised products for when carriers demand that laptops are checked in to the baggage hold during times of high alert.

Forum suggestions ranged from moving to rival longer-life notebooks supporting multiple cells to using the flight time for non-PC work or relaxation. However, some said they could not afford downtime.

“Ninety-eight percent of my time spent on planes is for business travel,” wrote one contributor on the Slashdot forum. “I work from home and the occasional remote customer site or disaster recovery facility. When I travel, the rest of my job doesn’t just magically disappear, so spending hours in transit should not mean that my productivity must drop, especially when most of that time is spent sitting down.”

Airlines have recently been assessing controls both as a result of flight industry reports into the dangers of batteries as fire risks, and as part of a broader alert relating to terrorism concerns.

Last week, a flaming ThinkPad notebook had to be extinguished at Los Angeles International airport. Earlier this month a US flight was diverted after an unclaimed BlackBerry was deemed to be a risk. In Canada last month, an iPod that had fallen into a plane’s lavatory was seen as a “suspicious package”.

Separately, in a coda to the huge recent Sony battery recalls by Dell and Apple, Toshiba said it would replace about 340,000 cells used in Satellite, Satellite Pro, Equium and Tecra laptops. Toshiba insisted that unlike the case with those earlier recalls there was no danger of batteries overheating.

Also, Lenovo issued an advisory note on its website after receiving customer reports of overheating laptops.