Flight Restrictions Introduced for Certain Items Containing Lithium Batteries

In recent years, flight passengers and/or crews (collectively referred to as “Onboard Parties”) have increasingly been carrying various types of electronic gadgets containing lithium batteries (“ Batteries”) on flights, frequently taking spare or loose Batteries for use as reserve sources of power for their various devices. However, said Batteries have now been declared a flight hazard in response to a steady increase in the number of in-flight incidents involving Batteries.[1]

Given the seriousness of the above-described flight hazards, the Director-General of Air Transportation at the Ministry of Transportation (“Director-General”) has now decided to introduce various measures aimed at preventing the occurrence of any incidents involving Batteries and Onboard Parties’ carried luggage through increased hazard awareness, as described through the issuance of Circular No. SE.02 of 2023 on Awareness of Lithium Batteries and Equipment Containing Lithium Batteries in Passenger and/or Flight Crew Luggage (“Circular 2/2023”), which has been in force since 27 January.[2]