Southwest surprises customers with strict new policy the first of its kind in the industry: experts
They’re putting the squeeze on extra juice.Southwest Airlines is implementing a surprising new restriction on portable chargers to keep these notoriously incendiary devices from bursting into flame mid-flight.Starting on May 28, passengers will be required to keep their power banks in plain sight, making the budget carrier the first to roll out a policy of this kind.“Using portable charging devices while stored in a bag or overhead bin will no longer be permitted,” a Southwest spokesperson told Business Insider.“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees.”They will, however, allow passengers to keep the devices in their carry-on bags when not in use.The logic is that the portable phone juicers run on lithium-ion batteries that can overheat and ignite, so keeping them in plain sight allows flight attendants to identify and extinguish the hazard before it’s too late.“In the rare event a lithium battery overheats or catches fire, quick access is critical and keeping power banks in plain sight allows for faster intervention and helps protect everyone onboard,” a Southwest rep said, according to Fortune.
In March, passengers flying from Malaysia to Thailand were thrown into a panic after a power bank ignited in the overhead bin and filled the cabin with smoke right before landing.While Southwest has not implemented the policy yet, passengers have been receiving notifications via the airline’s app warning them to keep the chargers out of their bags and “in plain sight” and to refrain from using them in the luggage compartments, per a viral Reddit post.This policy comes amid an annual uptick in incidents of power banks catching fire in-flight.According to Federal Aviation Administration statistics, there have already been 19 incidents involving batteries in 2025, while last year there were a record 89 charger-related issues.Although still a relatively low risk when factoring in the approximately 180,000 f...