Charge Your Phone: Southwest Airlines Cracks Down on Portable Power Banks

It might be a good idea to charge your phone before you travel. Airlines around the world are tightening their rules around portable chargers and power banks.

If you’re traveling via Southwest Airlines in the future, you’ll need to keep your portable charger visible anytime you’re using it, which means no leaving your phone to charge in your baggage or the overhead storage compartment.

The airline stopped short of a full ban, however; you can still bring up to 20 spare batteries on your next Southwest flight. You are also still allowed to store these in your hand luggage while not in use. (Storing the lithium-based batteries most portable chargers use in checked luggage has been banned in almost all countries since 2021.)

Airlines like Malaysia’s AirAsia announced similar restrictions on portable chargers on April 1, while Thailand’s Thai Airways also introduced comparable rules in recent months.

The spate of new restrictions comes after an airplane fire in Busan, South Korea, earlier this year, which investigators suspect was caused by a malfunctioning lithium-ion battery. These types of batteries, although generally safe, can be highly combustible under specific circumstances, like extreme overheating or manufacturing defects.

A Southwest spokesperson told The New York Times that the new rules will help its flight attendants react quicker in the event of battery fire, citing “multiple incident reports” involving batteries on its flights. As of 2023, Southwest began introducing USB charging ports on all of its planes, meaning you should be able to get by with just a simple USB cable in a pinch, rather than turning to a charging bank. 

About Will McCurdy

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I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.

I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.

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