Still No USB-C at Airports and on Planes

I get it. The air travel industry runs on decades old infrastructure. Planes stay in service for 20+ years. Gate systems and backend tools are still patched together with Fortran and COBOL. Nothing moves fast unless it has wings and jet fuel. But even with all that in mind, it still baffles me that in 2025, I can’t reliably find a USB-C port in most airports or airplanes.

You see “charging ports available at every seat” and think, perfect, I’ll juice up my phone. Then you sit down, reach for your cable, and there it is again, USB-A. The outdated, slow, underpowered version of what used to be cutting edge. Your sleek USB-C phone now needs a clunky adapter or an ancient cable just to survive a long flight. If you forgot it, too bad. Hope you enjoy the overpriced airport shop experience where cables are $30, don’t support fast charging, and feel like they’ll snap in half by your layover.

What makes this all the more annoying is how preventable it is. It’s not about cost, the shift to USB-C ports in public infrastructure doesn’t require overhauling the entire electrical system. And it’s certainly not about security. I’ve heard people suggest that USB-C allows malicious ports to extract data, but let’s be clear, both iOS and Android require explicit user permission before allowing any data transfer. You plug in, and a prompt pops up asking if you want to trust the connection. No silent data theft happening here.

And if that’s the reason we’re still using USB-A, it’s a weak one. You can exploit data lines just as easily over USB-A with the right cable. The difference is that USB-C is now standard across most devices, offers better power delivery, and simplifies everything if only the infrastructure would catch up.

Instead, we’ve landed in this weird halfway zone. USB-C is clearly the default in consumer electronics, but travel infrastructure acts like it hasn’t gotten the memo. And when it fails us, we pay the price “literally”. Airport shops sell panic priced cables and accessories that are rarely worth the plastic they’re molded from. It’s like a tax on your bad memory for not packing every possible dongle and backup cable

Europe adds another layer of irony to this. The EU rightfully forced Apple and others to standardize on USB-C to reduce e-waste and simplify charging. That was the correct move. But then you land at CDG or Schiphol, and what do you find? USB-A everywhere. The same region that legislated the standard can’t even follow it in its own airports. There’s a disconnect between policy and infrastructure that makes the travel experience feel inconsistent and unnecessarily frustrating.

I know the industry moves slowly. I know retrofitting planes and terminals isn’t trivial. But when new aircraft are being delivered today, when airport lounges are getting overhauled, and when marketing loudly advertises “On-plane charging,” it’s fair to expect that the most widely adopted charging standard on Earth be part of the offering. Until then, I’ll keep carrying a USB-C to A converter like it’s some rare artifact, hoping I don’t leave it in the seatback pocket. And when I forget, I’ll prepare myself for another round of overpriced cables and painfully slow charging. It’s just another ritual of flying—like lost baggage, security lines, and listening to the guy next to you talking to ChatGPT for hours at 30,000 feet.