Power Bank Rules on Planes in 2026: TSA vs the New Limit

The rule most travelers know is the TSA's: power banks under 100Wh, carry-on only, never checked. That rule has not changed. What changed is everything above it. Starting 27 March 2026, a new global aviation standard cut the number of power banks a passenger can carry to two and banned recharging them in flight. Several individual airlines went further still, banning power bank use in the cabin entirely after two real onboard fires. The result is three different layers of rules stacked on top of each other, and a traveler checking only the TSA page is missing the two layers that actually determine what happens on the plane.

The baseline: TSA's 100Wh rule hasn't moved

In the United States, the rule is unchanged and simple. The TSA's own guidance states it in two lines: power banks are allowed in carry-on bags, and prohibited in checked bags, no exceptions. Capacity splits into three bands, per the TSA's lithium battery guidance:

• 100Wh or under (roughly 27,000mAh at 3.7V): carried freely, no approval needed.
• 101 to 160Wh: allowed only with airline approval, and capped at two spares per person.
• Over 160Wh: not permitted on a passenger aircraft, in carry-on or checked, at all.

Almost every power bank sold to consumers falls in the first band. A typical phone power bank runs 10,000 to 27,000mAh, which is 37 to 100Wh. The 100Wh line only starts to matter for laptop-sized battery packs and multi-day camera or drone kits.

What actually changed: a new global ceiling from 27 March 2026

The TSA page covers capacity. It says nothing about how many power banks you can carry, or whether you can use one in flight, because until this year those questions were left to individual airlines and countries to answer inconsistently. That gap closed on 27 March 2026, when an addendum to ICAO's Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air took effect, adopted by aviation regulators worldwide. The UK Civil Aviation Authority's own summary of the change lists the new passenger rules directly:

• Power banks must be carried in carry-on baggage, same as before.
• Maximum of two power banks per person, a new hard cap that did not exist under the old rules.
• Power banks must not be recharged on board the aircraft, closing off the practice of plugging a power bank into a seatback USB port to top it up mid-flight.
• Power banks should not be used to charge other devices on board.
• Each power bank must be individually protected against short-circuit when not in use: original retail packaging, taped terminals, or a separate pouch, not loose in a bag pocket.

That last provision, "should not be used to charge other devices on board," is the one most travelers have not registered. It is a global recommendation, not yet a hard ban everywhere it applies, which is exactly why individual airlines have started turning it into one.

Why airlines are going further than the rule requires

Two carriers moved first, and both moved because of a fire, not a memo. On 21 July 2025, Virgin Australia flight VA1528 from Sydney to Hobart had a fire break out in an overhead locker during descent, later attributed to an overheating power bank in a passenger's bag. Cabin crew put it out with an extinguisher and passenger water bottles before it spread. Qantas's own dangerous goods policy confirms what followed: from 15 December 2025, Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar prohibit using or charging a power bank on board entirely, cap each unit at 160Wh, allow a maximum of two per passenger, and require the power bank to stay within reach, in a seat pocket, under the seat, or the nearest overhead locker, rather than stowed further away. Virgin Australia's own ban started even earlier, from 1 December 2025.

Europe's largest airline group followed a similar path without a matching incident of its own. From 15 January 2026, Lufthansa Group, covering Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, ITA Airways, Edelweiss and Air Dolomiti, banned both using and charging power banks on board across its whole network. Passengers can still carry up to two, but only in a seat pocket, on their person, or in the bag under the seat in front; the overhead bin is now off-limits for power bank storage specifically, even though every other carry-on item still goes up there.

The pattern across every one of these rules is the same: keep the battery visible and reachable, keep it disconnected, keep the count low. A fire that starts in a seat pocket gets fought in seconds with an extinguisher. A fire that starts in an overhead bin, sealed inside a bag, is discovered later and burns longer first.

What this means the next time you fly

Three checks cover almost every trip:

1. Check your airline's specific policy before you pack, not just the country's baseline rule. The country sets the floor (TSA: 100Wh, carry-on only); the airline can and increasingly does set a stricter ceiling on top of it.
2. Assume you cannot charge a power bank, or charge from one, once you're in your seat, on any airline in 2026, even if that specific carrier hasn't published an explicit ban yet. The global rule already discourages it, and the next incident could turn that into a hard rule industry-wide overnight.
3. Keep it on you, not overhead. A power bank sealed in an overhead bin is the exact scenario the March 2026 rule and the Qantas, Virgin Australia and Lufthansa Group bans were all written to prevent.

None of this changes what happens on the ground. A powerbank rental network exists precisely so a traveler does not need to carry a spare battery at all between the airport and the hotel; airports and train stations already run their own charging math around exactly this same dead-battery problem, and it's part of why power bank sharing exists in the first place: rent one where you land, hand it back when you don't need it, and skip the carry-on capacity math entirely. If you already own a power bank and are only weighing whether to travel with it, renting vs buying breaks down when each makes sense. For the flight itself, the safest personal power bank is a small one, under 100Wh, kept in a seat pocket, and left switched off unless it is actually in your hand. Once you land, Brick stations at partner venues cover the charge from there.

Frequently asked questions

Can I bring a power bank on a plane in 2026?

Yes, in carry-on baggage only, never in checked luggage, on every airline covered by ICAO's rules. Most consumer power banks (under 100Wh) need no special approval; larger ones (101 to 160Wh) need the airline's advance approval and are capped at two per person; anything over 160Wh is not permitted at all.

Can I use a power bank during a flight?

It depends on the airline. Since 27 March 2026, the global recommendation is that power banks should not be used to charge other devices on board, but that recommendation is not yet a universal hard rule everywhere. Qantas, Jetstar, QantasLink and Virgin Australia (from December 2025) and the Lufthansa Group airlines (from January 2026) have turned it into an outright ban: no charging your phone from a power bank, and no charging the power bank itself, for the whole flight.

Why did airlines suddenly ban power banks in 2026?

A specific incident triggered the first bans: an overheating power bank started a fire in an overhead locker on Virgin Australia flight VA1528 in July 2025, extinguished in the cabin before it could spread. That, combined with a broader rise in reported lithium-battery incidents, led ICAO to tighten its global rules from 27 March 2026, and led several major airlines to adopt stricter rules than the new global floor requires.

How many power banks can I bring on a plane?

Two per person is now the common limit, both under the ICAO rule that took effect 27 March 2026 and under the individual policies at Qantas, Virgin Australia and the Lufthansa Group. Older, less strict limits (Ryanair's cabin rules, for example, historically allowed more spare batteries under 100Wh) are being superseded by the new global standard as airlines update their own policies to match it.

Do these rules apply to checked baggage?

No power bank or spare lithium battery is allowed in checked baggage, on any airline, under any of these rules. This is the one part of the policy that has been consistent for years and did not change in 2026: a battery fire in the cabin can be spotted and fought immediately; the same fire in the cargo hold cannot.