Power banks and batteries: what must go in hand luggage
Keeping a power bank in hand luggage is no longer a nicety, it is the message a regulator is putting in front of every traveller this summer. On 26 June 2026 the UK Civil Aviation Authority warned that more than 100 million batteries are being packed into the wrong bag, and named lithium batteries as the single biggest safety risk to aircraft. Here is what was actually said, what it changes at the bag drop, and where it leaves the odds and ends in your case.
What the regulator said
The CAA's campaign, "Pack Right for a Safe Flight", was launched with a set of numbers that are worth reading slowly.
| The figure | What it describes |
|---|---|
| 100 million plus | Batteries estimated to be incorrectly packed by travellers |
| Around two a week | Incidents involving lithium batteries on aircraft |
| Nearly doubled | Reports of overheating or malfunctioning devices between 2024 and 2025 |
| 91 per cent | The rise in incorrectly packed checked baggage cases during 2025 |
| 36 per cent | Travellers unaware of the danger of batteries in a checked bag |
| Four | Lithium powered devices the average person now travels with |
| About 2,000 | Batteries aboard a busy Airbus A380 |
Giancarlo Buono, the CAA's director of aviation safety, put the instruction in one line:
Pack right for a safe flight, and that means don't put your batteries in your checked bag.
Tim Alderslade of Airlines UK was equally direct, saying that tablets, power banks and vapes belong in your hand luggage rather than the hold.
What has to travel in the cabin
The list is longer than most people expect, because it is not about the device, it is about the cell inside it.
- Power banks and spare battery packs
- Vapes and e-cigarettes
- Phones, tablets and e-readers
- Laptops, and if one does go in the hold it must be powered down completely
- Wireless headphones, smartwatches and cameras
The CAA also asks passengers not to charge a power bank during a flight. If you have ever fished one out mid-flight to top up a phone, that is the habit being aimed at.
Why the hold is the part that worries them
A rechargeable lithium-ion cell that is damaged, crushed or short-circuited can overheat, and the regulator's concern is not that this happens often but that it happens out of sight. In a cabin there are crew, extinguishers and several hundred people who will notice smoke immediately. Under the floor there is a sealed compartment nobody can reach in flight.
That is the whole logic of the rule. It is not that a power bank is more dangerous in a suitcase than in a rucksack. It is that a problem in a suitcase is discovered later.
The practical effect at the desk is worth planning for. A case pulled for a battery in the hold does not travel with you, and neither does anything else in it, which is how a packing habit turns into a luggage story.
Does any of this catch a luggage tracker?
No, and it is worth separating the two things clearly. The devices above run on rechargeable lithium-ion cells. A Find My tag runs on a single non-rechargeable coin cell containing a tiny quantity of lithium, which the rules treat in a different category entirely, the same one as a car key fob or a watch. We have written the detail up separately in the UK rules on a tracker in checked baggage, including where the 2022 scare came from. The short answer is that it travels, in either bag.
What the campaign does change is what ends up where. If the phones, the power bank and the laptop are all moving into your hand luggage, that bag is now carrying most of the value on the trip, and the case in the hold is carrying clothes. A lot of people have that the wrong way round when they decide which bag gets watched.
How Locata Tag fits the new packing order
A Locata Tag is a Find My compatible tracker with a replaceable CR2032 that runs for up to two years, so there is nothing to charge, nothing to remember and nothing for a check-in agent to query. Pair it with Find My on an iPhone or an iPad, iOS 14.5 upwards, and it reports its position through passing Apple devices with the data encrypted end to end. Android is not part of the picture.
Because a box holds two, the sensible split follows the advice above: one tag in the hold case, one in the bag that now contains every expensive thing you own. Within about 60 m you can ring either at 80 to 100 dB, which is how a rucksack under a seat two rows back gets found. There is no Ultra Wideband, so expect a map pin and a sound rather than an arrow, and in an empty place with no passing devices you will see the last report rather than a live one. Where to put each one inside the bag is covered in hold or hand.
Two tags, two key rings, free UK delivery: that is the box.
Sources
Words by Find My Tracker Updated
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