The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched a new summer awareness campaign to highlight the concerning statistic that over 100 million rechargeable lithium batteries are incorrectly packed on flights. Batteries are most commonly found in laptops, power banks, mobile phones, and electronic cigarettes, or ‘vapes’. The fire risk of these batteries, if incorrectly packed in checked baggage, could become uncontrollable.
Pack right, safe flight
60 million people are expected to fly from UK airports this summer, and the CAA revealed that the average person now carries four lithium-powered devices on trips. Ninety-two percent of passengers take a mobile phone, 55% fly with a laptop and 49% with a power bank. There were no CAA figures shared for vapes, but about 10% of the UK population (5.4 million) use them daily or occasionally, according to a 2024 Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey.
The CAA says its figures could equate to over 2,000 lithium batteries on a busy Airbus A380 flight, thereby exposing passengers to a higher fire safety risk. The CAA also indicates that around two lithium battery incidents currently occur per week.
There is a clear disparity between the CAA’s figures showing passenger awareness of the dangers of packing devices in checked baggage (36%) and the 91% increase in the number of devices incorrectly packed between 2024 and 2025. There was also a 98% increase in reports of overheating and malfunctioning devices in the same period.
Clear passenger rules
The CAA’s safety campaign asks passengers to:
- Take mobile phones, vapes and power banks on board.
- Never charge a power bank on board.
- Turn off laptops if they are in checked-in baggage.
- Check before you zip up bags.
The CAA campaign is supported by Heathrow Airport (LHR), Airlines UK and Virgin Atlantic, with several incidents already reported by Travel Radar this year. On March 15, 2026, a vape caught fire on a Virgin Atlantic flight which was travelling from Brisbane to Melbourne, Australia. Luckily, the flight was landing, and no passengers were injured. A passenger on an Alaska Airlines flight on Feb. 26, 2026, was treated for minor burns after a power bank spontaneously caught fire after takeoff. Six passengers sustained minor injuries in a similar incident on board an IndiGo flight in May 2026.
The CAA states that the fire risk posed by lithium batteries now makes them the number one safety risk to aircraft.
Do you always remember to bring your rechargeable devices on board, and do you think this campaign will improve awareness? Let us know in the comments below.
