Power Bank Rules: 9 Airlines Differ From 100 Wh
Almost every recorded deviation keeps the 100 Wh line; what differs is what happens above it and how many you may bring. Both matter only if you can read the Wh off your own power bank first.
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Almost every airline in our set that records a power-bank rule records the same one: a 100 Wh ceiling for what you may carry into the cabin. The interesting part starts above that ceiling, because that is where the rules stop agreeing — and where a power bank that is unremarkable on one airline needs a phone call on another.
The industry baseline itself is a page of IATA guidance, not a law: up to 100 Wh is generally allowed in the cabin, between 100 and 160 Wh may be allowed with airline approval, and above 160 Wh is usually not permitted on passenger aircraft at all. Spare batteries and power banks are prohibited in checked baggage in any quantity. The full baseline, with its source .
The 9 airlines with a recorded deviation
9 of the 155 airlines in our set have a recorded deviation from that baseline. 8 of them keep the 100 Wh ceiling exactly; the differences are in the approval tier, the quantity, or the point at which the answer becomes no.
| Airline | Allowed in cabin | Needs approval | Not permitted | Power banks | Spare batteries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air France | 100 Wh (any lithium battery) | 160 Wh (power bank) | — | — | — |
| American Airlines | 100 Wh (power bank) · 160 Wh (spare battery) | 300 Wh (any lithium battery) | — | 2 | 4 |
| British Airways | 100 Wh (power bank) | 160 Wh (any lithium battery) | — | 2 | 4 |
| Cathay Pacific | 160 Wh (spare battery) | — | 160 Wh (any lithium battery) | 2 | 20 |
| Emirates | 100 Wh (power bank) | — | — | 1 | 20 |
| Lufthansa | 100 Wh (power bank) | 160 Wh (power bank) | — | 2 | 20 |
| Qantas | 100 Wh (any lithium battery) | 160 Wh (any lithium battery) | 160 Wh (any lithium battery) | 2 | 20 |
| Singapore Airlines (under review) | 100 Wh (power bank) | — | — | 2 | 20 |
| United Airlines | 160 Wh (spare battery) · 100 Wh (any lithium battery) | — | — | 2 | 2 |
"Allowed in cabin" and "needs approval" are separate columns because they are separate rows in the source: a carrier can allow 100 Wh outright and 160 Wh only with its agreement, and the two are published as two statements, not one range. Where a cell shows more than one figure, the figures apply to different kinds of battery, which is exactly why the scope is printed next to each.
Above the ceiling, the airlines split in two
Beyond the cabin ceiling there are only two numbers in the recorded set, and the gap between them is wide. 4 airlines set the approval line at 160 Wh (Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, Qantas). The other group — one airline sets the approval line at 300 Wh (American Airlines).
An explicit "not permitted above" figure appears for 2 airlines, both at 160 Wh (Cathay Pacific, Qantas). For Qantas that figure sits directly on top of its 160 Wh approval tier, so the two rows are one statement read from both ends: up to 160 Wh may be allowed with agreement, strictly above it no. The baseline says the same thing, which is why the same number showing up as both an approval ceiling and a prohibition is a boundary, not a contradiction.
The quantity rule is where they really differ
8 of the 9 airlines state a number of power banks you may carry into the cabin. 7 of them say two, and one says 1 (Emirates).
The spare-battery column is looser and less uniform: the recorded limits there run from 2 to 20, and they are counted in a separate bucket from power banks. A carrier allowing twenty spare cells is not thereby allowing twenty power banks — the two are published as separate statements, which is why the table keeps them in separate columns.
Read the Wh off your own device first
None of the above decides anything until you know how much energy your power bank holds, and that number is printed on it — usually in very small type, next to the mAh figure. Look for Wh. It is the figure airlines use; mAh alone is not comparable across devices because it depends on voltage.
If only mAh is printed, the conversion is Wh = mAh × V ÷ 1000. At the 3.7 V nominal voltage of a
single-cell lithium pack, 10,000 mAh is about 37 Wh, 20,000 mAh about 74 Wh, and roughly 27,000 mAh reaches
the 100 Wh line. Nominal voltage varies between cells, so treat the conversion as an
estimate and the printed Wh as the number that counts.
If the device has no Wh marking at all, that is itself the answer to prepare for: an airline that applies the ceiling has nothing to read, and the safest assumption is that the device will be treated as being at or over the limit.
What to do with this
- Find the Wh marking and photograph it. One photo of the label settles the question at the gate and at the check-in desk, in either direction.
- Assume the 100 Wh ceiling applies unless you have checked the specific airline, since that is the figure 8 of the 9 recorded deviations state outright.
- Count your power banks before you pack them. The quantity rule is the one that actually differs between carriers, and it is the easier of the two to get wrong when two devices travel together.
- Never put them in checked baggage. This is not a threshold question — spare batteries and power banks are prohibited in the hold in any quantity, on the baseline and on every recorded deviation.
What this page does not tell you
- It does not decide whether your power bank may fly. The site's battery rules are recorded and reviewed but the automated battery check is not exposed in any interface yet, and 1 of the 9 deviations above is still flagged for review rather than cleared.
- It is not a ranking, and no airline is being called unsafe or lax. Every figure here is what an airline publishes about a safety limit; the limit that applies on the day can still be tighter, and is the crew's call.
- The 146 airlines with no recorded deviation are shown the baseline because our data model treats the baseline as applying where no deviation is recorded. That is a statement about our records, not a verification of each of those airlines' own pages — the number verified line by line today is 0.
Related
- The IATA baseline for spare batteries and power banks — the source behind the 100 / 160 Wh thresholds.
- Do cabin bag limits include wheels and handles? — the measurement decision that changes the size of your bag.
- When an airline only gives a three-side total