Power Banks Face Tougher Restrictions in 2026: Everything Air Travellers Need to Know About ICAO’s New Safety Rules
If you travel with a portable charger — and the overwhelming majority of modern travellers do — there is a significant change to aviation rules that directly affects you. As of 27 March 2026, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has introduced the world’s first coordinated international standard specifically governing how passengers may carry and use power banks on flights. These are not vague guidelines or airline-by-airline policies that you might slip through unnoticed. They are binding standards adopted by all 193 ICAO member states, and airlines around the world are actively enforcing them.
The new rules are straightforward in principle but have caught many travellers off guard. Power banks are now limited to two per passenger, they must be carried in your cabin baggage — never in checked luggage — and you are prohibited from using them to charge your devices while in the air. Violating these rules at airports with strict enforcement can mean being required to dispose of your excess power banks before boarding. At airports with less intensive enforcement, you may simply face a warning — but that is not a guarantee you should rely on.
For anyone who travels regularly, whether for business or leisure, understanding why these rules were introduced, exactly what they require of you, and how to stay compliant across different airlines and routes is essential knowledge. This guide covers all of it in full.
You can also find additional guidance on preparing properly for international travel in our airport survival guide and international flight tips at Sunny Online Travel, where we cover everything from packing strategies to navigating security checkpoints smoothly.
The Incident That Changed Everything: Air Busan Flight 391
To understand why these new rules exist, you have to start with what happened on 28 January 2025 at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea. Air Busan Flight BX391, an Airbus A321 carrying 169 passengers and seven crew members, was preparing to taxi for takeoff on a routine flight to Hong Kong. Then, a fire broke out in an overhead luggage compartment near the rear of the aircraft.
What followed was a rapid and terrifying escalation. The fire spread with a speed and intensity that reflects a characteristic property of lithium-ion battery fires: once a battery enters what engineers call “thermal runaway,” the resulting chemical chain reaction is almost impossible to stop through conventional means. Within a short period, the top section of the aircraft’s fuselage had been completely destroyed by the flames. The plane was a total loss — reduced to a gutted shell on the airport apron.
Remarkably, all 176 people on board were evacuated alive. Emergency slides were deployed, and passengers scrambled out of the burning aircraft. Twenty-seven people sustained injuries, including smoke inhalation and bruises sustained during the evacuation, but there were no fatalities. The outcome was a matter of luck as much as training: the fire broke out while the plane was still on the ground, giving passengers the ability to escape in ways they simply would not have had at cruising altitude.
Investigators from South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB), working alongside French aviation safety officials, focused their attention on the overhead compartment where the fire originated. Burn marks and remnants of a lithium-ion power bank were recovered from the area. The leading hypothesis was that the battery’s internal insulation had failed, triggering thermal runaway — a self-sustaining, exponentially escalating chain reaction of heat generation that overwhelmed the power bank’s casing and ignited surrounding materials.
The Air Busan fire was not an isolated event that appeared from nowhere. It was the dramatic peak of a trend that aviation safety authorities had been tracking with growing alarm for years. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been logging lithium battery incidents on commercial aircraft — events involving smoke, fire, or extreme heat — since 2006. Between 2006 and November 2025, the FAA recorded 552 such verified incidents, with around 223 directly caused by power banks and spare lithium-ion batteries. Of all incidents recorded, 73% occurred on passenger aircraft. The rate of incidents has climbed steeply: before the pandemic, fewer than 50 such events occurred in any given year. By 2025, the FAA was logging close to 95 incidents in a single year — nearly two per week.
The Air Busan fire crystallised what the data had been saying for years. The proliferation of portable charging devices, combined with an uneven market full of cheaply manufactured, inadequately tested products, had created a real and growing fire risk at 35,000 feet. Something had to change.
What Thermal Runaway Actually Means — and Why It’s So Dangerous at Altitude
Before examining the new rules in detail, it’s worth spending a moment on the science that makes lithium-ion batteries uniquely hazardous in aviation environments, because the nature of the risk is what explains the specific shape of the restrictions.
A lithium-ion battery stores energy in a dense chemical format that is highly efficient for consumer electronics — it’s why modern smartphones and laptops can be so thin and last so long. But that energy density comes with a physical vulnerability. When a lithium-ion battery is physically damaged, short-circuited, exposed to excessive heat, or repeatedly overcharged using sub-standard charging circuits, the internal chemistry can destabilise. Heat begins to build inside one cell. That heat triggers a chemical reaction that generates more heat, which in turn accelerates the reaction further in a self-reinforcing loop — thermal runaway.
The temperatures involved in a full thermal runaway are extreme, reaching above 500°C (900°F) in severe cases. Toxic and flammable gases are vented from the battery casing as the cells break down. In multi-cell power banks, the thermal runaway can cascade from one cell to the next in a domino effect, turning a small portable device into a sustained fire source that cannot be smothered using conventional fire suppression techniques. Aviation experts note that a 200Wh power bank — larger than the standard consumer models — can generate enough toxic gas in thermal runaway to exceed safe exposure levels across an aircraft cabin multiple times over.
In an aircraft cabin, this risk is compounded by several factors. The controlled environment of a pressurised fuselage limits escape options if a fire takes hold. Crew members are highly trained to respond to battery incidents, but their ability to contain a large or fast-spreading fire depends on being able to access the device quickly. A power bank stored in an overhead luggage compartment, tucked inside a packed bag, may begin overheating without anyone noticing until the situation has escalated significantly. That is precisely why one of the core elements of the new rules is a requirement for power banks to remain accessible — within the passenger’s reach — during the flight, rather than being buried in an overhead bin.
The chemistry also explains why power banks must be kept in the cabin rather than in checked baggage. In the cargo hold, there are no crew members present to detect and respond to an early-stage thermal runaway event. The passive fire suppression systems in aircraft cargo holds are effective against many types of fires but can be overwhelmed by a lithium-ion battery fire with multiple cells in thermal runaway. By keeping power banks in the cabin, the rules ensure that trained crew members are always in a position to detect the warning signs — heat, a chemical smell, swelling, smoke — and intervene before the situation becomes uncontrollable.
The ICAO Decision: What the New Rules Actually Say
On 27 March 2026, ICAO’s new power bank specifications came into effect. The decision was approved by all 36 ICAO Council member states and formally incorporated into the Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (Doc 9284). The rules apply to all 193 ICAO member countries and represent the first unified international standard on portable battery limits in aviation history. Here is precisely what the new standards require.
Two power banks per passenger, maximum. Each individual passenger is now permitted to carry no more than two power banks aboard any international flight. This limit applies to every traveller, regardless of how many devices they own or how long their journey is. There are no exceptions for business class passengers, frequent flyers, or anyone else.
Cabin baggage only — never in checked luggage. Power banks have been prohibited from checked baggage since 2013, but the new rules reinforce and formalise this across all member states. A power bank placed in a suitcase that goes into the aircraft hold is not just a rule violation — it is a genuine safety hazard, because the cargo hold offers no capacity for crew intervention if thermal runaway begins.
No in-flight charging of power banks. This is perhaps the most significant new operational restriction, and the one that will affect most travellers on a practical level. You may not use the aircraft’s USB ports or seat power outlets to charge a power bank while in flight. The reasoning is direct: charging introduces current flow into the battery, which generates heat, and heat in a lithium-ion battery increases the risk of thermal runaway. Charging your own devices — your phone, laptop, or tablet — directly from the aircraft’s power supply is still permitted. The ban applies specifically to feeding power through a power bank, not to using power sockets directly.
Power banks must remain within reach. While the ICAO standard does not use these exact words, the guidance aligned with the new rules strongly discourages storing power banks in overhead compartments and requires that they be accessible to both the passenger and crew. Keeping a power bank in the seat pocket, under the seat in front, or in a personal item at your feet is the compliant approach.
Watt-hour capacity limits apply. Power banks with a rated capacity of up to 100 watt-hours (Wh) are permitted without requiring prior airline approval. Power banks rated between 100Wh and 160Wh may be carried, but they require explicit approval from the airline before travel — this generally means notifying the airline when you book, not at the check-in desk. Power banks exceeding 160Wh are not permitted on passenger aircraft at all under any circumstances.
For reference, the most common consumer power banks — 10,000mAh and 20,000mAh units from brands like Anker, INIU, and similar — typically fall well within the 100Wh limit, which means most travellers’ standard portable chargers are compliant with the capacity rules. The two-unit limit and the in-flight charging ban are the restrictions that will require behaviour changes for the majority of passengers.
Crew members are handled separately. Flight crew are still permitted to carry and use power banks in accordance with the operational requirements of the aircraft. This exception reflects the professional context in which crew use such devices, including for electronic flight bags and aircraft-related tasks.
How Airlines Around the World Are Implementing the Rules
ICAO sets the baseline standard, but it is individual airlines and national aviation authorities that implement and enforce these rules. Most major international carriers have already aligned with the ICAO two-power-bank limit and in-flight charging ban, with several having actually introduced stricter rules before ICAO’s standard came into force.
Lufthansa Group was among the first major carriers to implement a two-power-bank limit and an in-flight charging ban across its entire group of airlines, including SWISS, Austrian Airlines, and Brussels Airlines. Lufthansa moved ahead of the formal ICAO standard, signalling the direction the industry was heading.
South Korean carriers — Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Jin Air, Air Busan, and Air Seoul — banned in-flight power bank use as early as 26 January 2026, months before the ICAO standard took effect. South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport led the global push for standardised rules in the aftermath of the Air Busan fire, and South Korean airports and airlines have been among the strictest enforcers.
Singapore Airlines and Scoot adopted the two-power-bank limit from 15 April 2026, following direction from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). The rules at Singapore Changi Airport are particularly rigorous: passengers found carrying more than two power banks at the gate are required to dispose of the excess before boarding. This is not a warning — excess devices will not be allowed on board, and there is no facility to check them into hold baggage at that stage.
Qatar Airways has aligned with the ICAO two-power-bank limit. Power banks under 100Wh are permitted without prior approval; those between 100Wh and 160Wh require the airline’s prior approval for each individual passenger.
Cathay Pacific permits two power banks under 100Wh without approval, but requires passengers to seek airline approval at least 48 hours before departure for any power bank rated between 100Wh and 160Wh.
Emirates, British Airways, Air India, and Thai Airways have all aligned with the ICAO baseline standard. Thai Airways specifically notes that non-compliance could lead to denied boarding or confiscation of the device.
Southwest Airlines in the United States has gone further than the ICAO baseline by limiting passengers to just one portable charger, effective from 20 April 2026. Southwest has also banned the use of seat power outlets to charge power banks, and requires that the power bank remain accessible — not stored in an overhead bin — at all times during the flight. Southwest has announced plans to install in-seat power outlets across its fleet by mid-2027, reducing the passenger need for external battery packs going forward.
Japan Airlines (JAL) and ANA have adopted the two-power-bank limit, with in-flight use banned from mid-April 2026. Each power bank must be 160Wh or less.
The key takeaway from this variation is that while ICAO sets the floor, some airlines are stricter. Before any international journey, you should check the specific power bank policy of every carrier on your itinerary — particularly if you are connecting between different airlines, as the rules that applied on your first leg may not apply on your second.
The Scale of the Problem: Why This Change Was Necessary
The Air Busan fire was the most dramatic illustration of the power bank risk, but the data behind the new rules tells an equally compelling story. According to IATA, the average passenger on a large commercial aircraft carries up to four lithium battery-powered devices. On a fully loaded Airbus A380 with 469 seats, that adds up to more than 1,800 lithium battery devices on a single flight. IATA’s own surveys found that 83% of all passengers carry a mobile phone on every flight, 60% bring a laptop, and 44% travel with a power bank.
The problem is not just the quantity of devices but the quality. The growing market for affordable consumer electronics has produced a flood of poorly manufactured power banks with inadequate safety certifications. Many of these products do not meet the United Nations’ UN38.3 test standard for battery safety — a benchmark that assesses whether a battery can withstand charging, discharging, external short circuits, crush, impact, and overheating without entering thermal runaway. Reputable brands typically meet UN38.3 as well as additional standards such as UL 2056 (which tests specifically for overcharge protection and thermal stability) and CE or FCC compliance. Cheaper, uncertified products make no such guarantees.
Between March 2006 and November 2025, FAA’s verified lithium battery incident log documented 552 events involving smoke, fire, or extreme heat aboard commercial aircraft. Of these, nearly 40% involved power banks and spare lithium-ion batteries. Before the pandemic, these incidents occurred at a rate of fewer than 50 per year. In 2024, the number reached 89. By 2025, it had climbed to 95 — meaning aviation safety authorities were dealing with a lithium battery incident on a commercial aircraft approximately every four days.
Several incidents during 2025 served as additional wake-up calls beyond the Air Busan fire. A power bank underwent thermal runaway in the overhead compartment of a Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 in July 2025, causing smoke and flames that required crew intervention and medical treatment for smoke inhalation. In August 2025, a power bank spontaneously ignited mid-flight aboard a KLM Boeing 777 operating from São Paulo to Amsterdam, requiring crew to isolate and extinguish the device while the aircraft continued to its destination. These were recoverable situations — but they illustrated how frequently the worst-case scenario was being narrowly avoided.
How to Stay Fully Compliant Under the New Rules
Understanding the rules and applying them to your travel routine are two different things. Here is a practical framework for making sure your power bank habits put you on the right side of aviation safety — and of the airport check-in desk.
Audit your power bank inventory before you pack. If you habitually throw all your charging devices into a travel bag, 2026 is the year to change that habit. Before any flight, consciously select a maximum of two power banks for your carry-on, and leave the rest at home or in your hotel room. If you are travelling with family or a group, remember that the two-unit limit applies per person — you cannot pool your allocation.
Check the watt-hour rating of every power bank you own. The Wh rating should be printed on the device’s label or casing. If it isn’t, it may be listed in the product manual or on the manufacturer’s website. For lithium-ion batteries, you can calculate it yourself: multiply the milliamp-hour (mAh) capacity by the voltage (V) and divide by 1,000. A 20,000mAh power bank at 3.7V = 74Wh — well within the 100Wh limit. A 26,800mAh unit at 3.7V = 99.2Wh — still under 100Wh, but worth double-checking. Anything approaching or exceeding 100Wh requires extra care and possibly airline pre-approval.
Never pack a power bank in your checked luggage. This has technically been the rule since 2013, but enforcement was inconsistent. In 2026, airports and airlines are actively checking, and the consequences of a power bank overheating in an aircraft hold with no crew access are exactly what the rules are designed to prevent. Keep every power bank in your carry-on bag, in your jacket pocket, or in your personal item.
Do not use your power bank to charge other devices in-flight. This is the rule most likely to catch habitual travellers off guard. If you reach for your power bank on a long flight to top up your phone, you are now in violation of ICAO’s global standard and your airline’s specific policy. Use the aircraft’s USB ports or seat power outlets to charge your devices directly instead.
Keep power banks accessible, not in overhead bins. Store power banks in your seat pocket, under the seat in front of you, or in a small bag that remains at your feet. If crew need to respond to a thermal event, your accessibility to the device is as important as theirs.
Only buy power banks from reputable manufacturers with visible safety certifications. Look for UN38.3, UL 2056, CE, and FCC certification marks on the device or its packaging. If a power bank is dramatically cheaper than comparable devices from established brands, that discount may reflect the absence of proper safety testing. Brands like Anker, UGREEN, Belkin, and INIU are generally produced to compliance standards that reduce thermal runaway risk.
Inspect your power banks before every trip. A swollen, dented, cracked, or unusually warm power bank should not travel with you — it should be disposed of at a certified recycling facility. The physical damage that causes thermal runaway is often visible to the naked eye if you look for it. A power bank that feels warmer than expected, makes hissing sounds, or emits a chemical smell is in an early stage of failure and must not be used or carried.
Verify your specific airline’s policy, not just ICAO’s. As the Southwest Airlines example shows, some carriers are stricter than the ICAO baseline. If you are connecting through multiple airlines in a single journey, check the policy for each carrier separately. If any one carrier limits you to a single power bank, that is the constraint for your entire trip.
Being well-prepared with the right carry-on documentation for your overall journey is just as important as knowing the power bank rules. For broader guidance on everything you need to bring on an international flight — from visas and health forms to the right identification and device documentation — our article on what documents you need for a one-way flight is an essential pre-trip read.
What the Rules Mean for Different Types of Travellers
Frequent business travellers are likely the group most affected by the two-unit limit and the in-flight charging ban. Business travellers often carry high-capacity power banks to keep laptops, phones, and tablets charged through long-haul flights and layovers. Under the new rules, those power banks must not be used while airborne, which means arriving at your destination with devices at whatever charge level they reached before you boarded. Planning your charging strategy around departure lounge time — fully charging everything before you board — becomes the standard approach.
Long-haul leisure travellers on flights of 12 hours or more will feel the in-flight charging ban acutely. If you rely on a power bank to keep a tablet or phone alive for entertainment during very long flights, you will need to adapt. Making maximum use of in-seat USB ports and power outlets — charging your devices directly from the aircraft rather than through a power bank — is the compliant solution. Most modern long-haul aircraft have in-seat charging, though quality and availability varies.
Family travellers should note that while each person in the group is entitled to carry two power banks, this does not create a family pool of devices that can be shared freely. Each power bank is individually allocated to the person who declared it. Managing the charging needs of children’s tablets and parents’ phones within the new framework requires planning before departure, not improvisation mid-flight.
Backpackers and digital nomads who may carry an array of power banks to sustain extended off-grid travel need to recalibrate their packing. Two power banks per flight is now the global ceiling. If you are travelling to a remote destination where charging infrastructure is limited, the solution is not to exceed the limit — it is to choose power banks with the highest capacity within the 100Wh allowance, ensuring the two units you do carry are as capable as possible.
The Broader Industry Response and What Comes Next
The ICAO rules represent an important step, but they are part of an ongoing and evolving conversation within the aviation industry about how to manage the lithium battery risk without impractically restricting the devices that modern travellers depend on.
IATA has been working alongside ICAO’s Dangerous Goods Panel to explore whether power bank manufacturing standards — potentially including a mandatory approval stamp visible to consumers and airlines — should be developed. The concern is that the safety risk from power banks is not uniform: a properly certified device from a reputable manufacturer carries a fundamentally different risk profile from an uncertified product built to the lowest possible cost. Regulatory frameworks that treat all power banks equally, regardless of quality, may not be optimally calibrated to where the actual danger lies.
Several airlines are also investing in infrastructure that reduces the demand for power banks altogether. Southwest’s commitment to in-seat power outlets across its entire fleet by 2027 is one example. As in-seat charging becomes more universally available — including on narrowbody domestic aircraft where it has historically been rare — the practical need for passengers to use power banks during flights diminishes.
For passengers, the direction of travel is clear: the era of casually packing as many power banks as you own and charging devices freely during any flight is over. The 2026 ICAO rules represent a considered, evidence-based response to a genuine and growing safety risk, backed by years of incident data and prompted by one particularly dramatic near-catastrophe. They are here to stay, and future updates are likely to build on rather than retreat from the current framework.
Preparing properly for every aspect of air travel — including understanding documentation, booking your flight at the right time, and knowing the rules that apply to everything you carry — is what separates a smooth trip from a stressful one. For comprehensive travel planning guidance and the latest rules and tips for international travellers, visit Sunny Online Travel — your complete travel companion.
Quick Reference: The 2026 Power Bank Rules at a Glance
To help you apply these rules quickly before your next flight, here is a concise summary of the key requirements under the new ICAO standard — keeping in mind that your specific airline may impose stricter conditions:
Power banks must be in your carry-on baggage only — never in checked luggage. You may carry a maximum of two power banks per person. Each power bank must be rated at 100Wh or below without prior airline approval. Power banks between 100Wh and 160Wh require explicit airline approval before travel. Power banks above 160Wh are not permitted on passenger aircraft. You cannot charge other devices from your power bank while in flight. Power banks must remain accessible — not buried in an overhead bin. These rules apply on all 193 ICAO member countries’ international flights, effective from 27 March 2026, and many airlines have adopted them for domestic flights as well.
Always verify current requirements directly with your airline before you travel, and check the ICAO official safety resources at icao.int for the most up-to-date authoritative guidance on aviation safety regulations.
Rules and airline policies are subject to change. Always verify the latest requirements with your airline and the relevant national aviation authority before your journey.
