Singapore clamps down on power bank battery packs

Singapore’s Changi Airport will introduce tough restrictions on travel tech this week, and it will apply to all flights departing the Asian super-hub – which in effect also means visitors on inbound flights will need to follow the same rules.

Beginning April 15, in line with new rules issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization, travellers will be restricted to a maximum of two power banks per person in their hand luggage; under current rules, they can carry up to 20 power banks.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said passengers carrying more than two power banks at the security screening checkpoint “will be required to dispose of the excess power banks before the flight.”

Most aircraft now have USB ports to charge up phones and tablets.

Each power bank must not exceed 100Wh without special approval; as a rough gudeline, a 100Wh power bank is rated at approximately 27,000mAh.

This covers pretty much every power bank on the market – even the chunky Anker Laptop Power Bank with its beefy 25,000mAh capacity is rated at just 90Wh.

Larger battery packs up to 160Wh can be brought on board only with prior airline approval.

This powerful Anker battery pack is still safely under the 100Wh limit.

Most airlines now also place the following restrictions on using power banks on board:

• you can’t connect your phone, tablet or any other device to the power bank to charge them up en route, and
• you can’t plug the power bank into the plane’s USB socket to charge it up

However, removable rechargeable lithium batteries used in a device – such as a digital camera or drone – are exempt from Changi’s two-per-person rule, as are spare batteries for that device, “because a rechargeable battery in a device is not classified as a power bank,” CAAS director Mr Foong Ling Huei clarified to Executive Traveller.

“Power banks (also known as power packs or mobile batteries) are portable devices primarily designed to supply power to other equipment.”

“They are made up of one or more cells and function as universal external power sources capable of charging multiple devices,” compared to the single-device nature of spare batteries.