EditorialRestriction on power banks on flights should not have come as a surprise

The latest power-bank restriction on air travellers comes less than a month after a major nighttime crash and rescue drill at Hong Kong airport in which an airliner’s take-off was aborted after smoke was reported coming from a passenger’s power bank. But that was a simulation, involving more than 1,000 personnel plus hundreds of volunteers, aimed at optimising airport emergency response.

In hindsight, the exercise dramatised the safety issue. However, the restriction on power banks, regrettably, lacked preparation and advance notice, with few reminders in evidence at the airport on Sunday morning. As a result many passengers said they were taken by surprise by the new rule, although few indicated it would inconvenience them.

The latest clampdown follows the Civil Aviation Department’s ban in April 2025 on passengers of all four local airlines using power banks on board, charging them or storing them in overhead bins. The aviation industry began tightening restrictions after a fire on an Air Busan plane from South Korea to Hong Kong in January last year, followed by a small fire on a Singapore-bound Scoot flight from Hong Kong in November. In January this year, a power bank started a small fire on an Asiana Airlines flight from Incheon to Hong Kong.