American Airlines Tightens Power Bank Rules Following FAA Safety Warning

Following some safety incidents onboard flights last year, some U.S. airlines are limiting how passengers can bring and use portable power banks onboard.

Starting Friday, passengers on American Airlines will have to keep their power banks out of the overhead compartments, and instead in “plain sight,” meaning either in a seatback pocket, or in their personal carry-on bag that goes under the seat in front of them. All portable power banks must also be rated at 100 watt-hours or less.

American will also impose a strict limit of two portable chargers per person, and will not allow passengers to recharge the power banks themselves during the flight.

American is the second major U.S. airline to impose a limit on power banks. Southwest did the same starting on April 20, also telling passengers to keep the banks in plain sight, capping them at 100 watt-hours, and limiting each passenger to bringing just one onboard.

The changes come from a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety alert, which was issued by the FAA last year. That alert warned that batteries stored in overhead bins are dangerous because they aren’t easily monitored during flights, which would delay response time if there is a fire. By the time that the FAA issued that alert in 2025, it had already recorded 50 incidents involving lithium battery smoke, fire, or extreme heat on U.S. flights in that year alone.

Many international carriers like Emirates and Lufthansa also have similar limits in place, and other U.S. carriers have been operating with limits, whether passengers knew it or not. While Delta and United haven’t issued a “two-device limit” as a standalone headline like American and Southwest, they have both silently updated their fine print this spring to mirror the FAA’s push for visibility.

United, in fact, beat American to the punch by a few weeks—implementing a policy on March 1 that tells passengers to keep power banks in their personal items under the seat, rather than in the overhead bins. Delta followed a similar path, updating its safety guidelines to “strongly discourage” overhead storage for any spare lithium batteries.