Why Korean airports ban most battery-heated devices in cabin and checked baggage

Information about carrying transportable batteries onboard airplanes is displayed on the departure corridor of Incheon International Airport March 12, 2025. Newsis

Korea is tightening restrictions on battery-heated devices on airplanes, successfully banning most cordless hair instruments and comparable units from each carry-on and checked baggage amid mounting fears over in-flight lithium-ion battery fires.

The difficulty drew contemporary consideration after Australian traveler Ellie Tran was compelled to desert a wi-fi hair straightener value round 500,000 received ($399) at Incheon International Airport earlier than boarding a flight house to Sydney.

Tran advised British outlet Daily Mail that she had checked in the identical mannequin a number of instances with out incident and had even flown into Korea with it, solely to be advised on departure that it needed to be discarded. The system contained a built-in lithium-ion battery that can’t be eliminated, which safety officers flagged as a fireplace danger.

Korean airways now prohibit cordless straighteners, curling irons, transportable irons and rechargeable hand heaters with non-removable batteries in each cabin and checked baggage on all routes.

The crackdown isn’t restricted to hair instruments. Security officers at Incheon and different main Korean air hubs are more and more flagging a wider vary of battery-powered units that generate warmth or high-intensity mild.

The solely exceptions are units with batteries that may be bodily eliminated or fully disconnected with a flight-ready or airplane mode change that cuts energy to the heating factor.

A discover warning passengers towards putting transportable batteries in overhead bins is displayed at Air Busan’s home check-in counter at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, Feb. 19, 2025. Newsis

These guidelines replicate International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) harmful items steerage, which urges strict management of lively lithium-powered units as a result of cargo hearth suppression methods battle to comprise battery fires.

Authorities say the clampdown follows a string of incidents involving battery fires on or close to Korean plane.

In January final 12 months, a conveyable battery explosion on an Air Busan flight at Gimhae International Airport severely broken the plane, and separate instances of smoking or burning energy banks have been just lately reported on flights to and from Incheon. The episodes bolstered regulators’ view that any system able to self-heating in an enclosed house can quickly turn out to be life-threatening if thermal runaway spreads to close by gadgets.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has since ordered airways to deal with “non-removable battery heating devices” as excessive danger, whereas tightening guidelines on the place and the way different lithium batteries are carried.

Following a collection of incidents since March 2025, passengers are more and more suggested to maintain energy banks and e-cigarettes in designated pouches and on their individual, somewhat than in overhead bins, to make sure speedy response in case of a fireplace. The charging of transportable energy banks throughout flights can also be strictly restricted.

Incheon airport steerage additionally stresses that lithium batteries over 160 watt-hours are barred, and even smaller spares are allowed solely within the cabin beneath airline-specific limits.

An Asiana Airlines worker distributes “No Battery” tags to passengers on the airline’s check-in counter at Terminal 2 of Incheon International Airport, Wednesday. Yonhap

The crackdown aligns Korea with Japan, the place have regulators equally banned cordless hair instruments with non-removable batteries from each the cabin and baggage maintain. The United States and European international locations additionally prohibit such gadgets to carry-on baggage with necessary security covers and anti-activation locks.

Travelers don’t essentially need to throw away their costly devices.

Since 2017, Incheon airport operates a “storage and courier” desk close to safety the place passengers can retailer gadgets till a future journey or ship them to a Korean tackle as a substitute of throwing them away, although battery merchandise can’t be despatched by air overseas.