Southwest Airlines will soon start capping how many portable chargers and power banks you can bring on a flight, according to an internal message obtained by the New York Times.
According to the report, starting April 20th, passengers will only be able to bring one lithium battery-powered portable charger per person to a flight, and they won’t be allowed to charge those portable chargers using in-seat power, nor will they be able to store them in the overhead bins. Instead, passengers will be asked to hold their portable chargers throughout the flight or store them in a carry-on bag under their seats.
Lithium batteries power much of the technology we use in our day-to-day lives, from phones to laptops to e-cigarettes. They are also found in portable chargers and power banks.
Most of the time, they work fine, but if they are damaged, overcharged, or overheated, then the batteries can catch fire. Due to the chemicals inside these batteries, the flames they can create could be very tough to extinguish.
Due to this risk, portable chargers were long banned from checked baggage, with airlines requiring passengers to put portable chargers and any other lithium battery-powered devices inside their carry-on bags instead.
But still, there were 97 lithium battery-related incidents in aviation in 2025, and there have already been 14 accidents this year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The majority of the lithium battery-related air incidents that involved smoke, fire or extreme heat stemmed from portable chargers. The second biggest culprit was e-cigarettes, according to the FAA data.
The most high-profile recent incident was in January 2025, when an Airbus plane went up in flames on the tarmac at an airport in Busan, South Korea. Everyone on board had to evacuate, and the fire took roughly an hour to extinguish. Authorities later concluded that a power bank stored in an overhead bin may have been the culprit. A few months later, an Air China flight had to make an emergency landing when a lithium battery in an overhead bin spontaneously combusted mid-flight.
Chinese regulators have banned portable batteries from flights altogether, except if the device is clearly marked with a Chinese safety certification and has not been subject to recalls. Many airlines internationally have also since banned passengers from using or charging portable chargers, but Southwest is so far the only major American airline to come out with an even stricter set of rules for portable chargers.
One way that you can protect yourself against these spontaneous fires is to keep a close eye on product recalls. Anker, one of the world’s leading power bank makers, has issued several recalls over the past year due to potential fire risks.
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