Warning over power bank fire risk on flights as summer holidays begin

Flight passengers are being warned not to pack power banks or vapes in their hold luggage ahead of the busy summer holiday travel period beginning for parts of the UK.

The fire risk posed by lithium batteries is now the number one safety risk to aircraft, according to the aviation regulator, as the number of devices found in hold bags has nearly doubled in a year.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says the average person now takes four different lithium powered devices on a flight.

Ahead of the school summer holidays, which begin in Scotland first this week, people are being reminded to take devices in the cabin with them.

The batteries can store huge amounts of energy in a small space, and are now commonly used in lots of electrical items including laptops, vapes, power banks, mobile phones and smart watches.

They’re incredibly useful and versatile. But if the batteries overheat or are defective, a fire can result which spreads very quickly and is hard to control.

In 2024, 316 incidents of devices with lithium batteries detected in hold bags were reported to UK authorities. In 2025, that rose to 643.

Reports of devices overheating or malfunctioning also nearly doubled the same year, from 123 to 206.

Most of these issues occurred in the cabin where crew could deal with the situation, but the concern is that if this happens in the hold, the problem may not be discovered until it’s too late to control it.