What Travellers Need to Know About Power Banks on Flights This Summer
An Airbus A321 sat on a runway in South Korea in January 2025, fully evacuated, as a fire consumed the cabin from the overhead locker where a passenger had stored a power bank.
The aircraft was a write-off. Everyone survived. The rules changed.
What Triggered the Global Crackdown
The Air Busan fire was the event that forced regulators to act at a speed aviation rarely moves.
The incident accelerated a chain reaction that had been building through 2024 and 2025 as lithium battery incidents on flights rose sharply. According to the FAA, the agency logged 97 verified lithium battery incidents on aircraft in 2025, with power banks and vape devices accounting for the majority of cases.
A second high-profile incident followed in October 2025, when a power bank stored in an overhead locker caught fire on an Air China flight. United Airlines responded by banning overhead-bin storage of power banks across its network.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation had already been building toward a coordinated global response. On March 27, 2026, new ICAO specifications for lithium battery-powered power banks came into effect, approved by all 36 ICAO Council member states and applying to all 193 member countries.
This was the first coordinated international standard on portable battery limits in aviation.
📰 Related: Manchester's Only Bangkok Route Is Quadrupling This Winter
What the New Rules Actually Say
The ICAO rules establish a global baseline that individual airlines and countries can tighten further.
Passengers on international flights are now limited to two power banks in the cabin, and charging them during the flight is banned. Power banks must be stored where they are visible and accessible — under the seat or in the seat pocket in front — not in the overhead locker.
The underlying reason is practical. If a power bank catches fire in an overhead bin, it can smoke out the cabin before flight attendants can pinpoint which bag is burning. Keeping them under the seat or in a seat pocket ensures immediate visibility.
Batteries rated at 100 watt hours or less remain allowed without airline approval, while those between 101 and 160 watt hours require airline approval, and anything above 160 is prohibited. Most consumer power banks fall well under the 100Wh threshold — a 20,000mAh power bank is approximately 74Wh — but travellers with older or larger devices should check before they fly, according to ICAO's official technical instructions.
One critical distinction: using a power bank to charge your phone is permitted. Recharging the power bank itself from the aircraft's outlets is not. Charge your power bank fully before boarding.
📰 Related: Dad Dies After Being Restrained on Jet2 Flight From Cyprus to Manchester
How Different Airlines Are Applying the Rules
The ICAO baseline sets the floor. Several major carriers have gone further.
Emirates has limited passengers to a single power bank under 100Wh since October 2025, with no in-flight use permitted at all. Southwest Airlines cut its limit to one power bank from April 20, 2026 — the strictest US policy currently in force.
The Lufthansa Group — which includes Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and ITA Airways — moved to two power banks per passenger on January 15, 2026, banning in-flight use entirely, banning recharging via aircraft outlets, and banning overhead-bin storage.
Singapore Airlines and Scoot followed the ICAO baseline on April 15, 2026. British Airways, Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific and Air India have also aligned. American Airlines and Delta moved to the two-bank, 100Wh, no-recharging standard from May 1, 2026.
UK leisure carriers including Jet2 and easyJet have confirmed they are operating under ICAO-aligned restrictions for summer 2026, meaning the two-bank limit and in-flight charging ban apply to all holiday flights departing from British airports.
If you are gate-checked and your carry-on is taken from you, remove power banks before handing over the bag. Power banks must be physically removed from any gate-checked bag and kept in your personal possession. They cannot travel in the hold under any circumstances.
📰 Related: Bedford Train Crash Kills Driver Near Elstow
Why Power Banks Are Different From Other Devices
Unlike smartphones or laptops, a power bank contains only a battery with no active thermal management, no temperature sensors, and no software monitoring for unusual power draw. When something goes wrong, there is no internal safety system to catch it before it escalates.
The failure mode is thermal runaway — a self-sustaining chain reaction inside the battery cells that generates more heat than the device can dissipate. It can begin from physical damage, overheating, overcharging, or contact with water, and once started it cannot be stopped by removing a power source.
According to IATA data cited by Airline Ratings, approximately 44% of passengers currently travel with a power bank, meaning the new rules will affect a significant proportion of travellers. With an average of up to four lithium battery devices per passenger, a fully loaded Airbus A380 carries an estimated 1,800 lithium battery devices in the cabin.
What Summer Travellers Need to Do Before Flying
The rules are consistent enough across major carriers that the same checklist applies for most summer holiday flights.
Check the watt-hour rating on your power bank — it is printed on the device or listed in the product specifications. If it exceeds 100Wh, contact your airline before travel. Charge the power bank fully before leaving for the airport. Carry a maximum of two. Do not put them in your main bag if there is any chance it will be gate-checked. Store them under the seat or in the seat pocket, not in the overhead locker. Do not plug them into aircraft outlets to recharge.
The travellers who get caught out are simply the ones who packed by last year's habits. The rules changed in March. Most passengers have not yet adjusted.
Key Takeaways
- New ICAO rules effective March 27, 2026 limit passengers to two power banks per flight and ban in-flight charging via aircraft outlets — applying across 193 countries.
- Power banks must be stored under the seat or in the seat pocket — not in the overhead locker.
- Power banks above 160Wh are prohibited. Those between 100–160Wh require advance airline approval. Most consumer devices are under 100Wh.
- Using a power bank to charge your phone is permitted. Recharging the power bank itself from the aircraft's outlets is not.
- Several carriers are stricter than the ICAO baseline: Emirates and Southwest Airlines limit passengers to one power bank only.
- Power banks cannot travel in the hold. If your bag is gate-checked, remove them before handing it over.
Sources
Also Read
You might also like
Politics & World News Editor
James Mitchell has covered US and UK politics for over a decade, with a focus on elections, foreign policy, and Capitol Hill. He breaks down complex political stories into clear, fast analysis.
