THE REASONING PASSENGERS RARELY HEAR

Open the window blind. Put the seat upright. Remove the headphones. For many travellers these instructions can feel repetitive or unnecessary, but each derives from decades of international research and operational experience. Theuns Dreyer, Head of Airports and Ground Operations at LIFT, said every safety instruction on board exists for a reason, and that most travellers experience the instruction without the thinking behind it.

The reasoning is specific in each case. Opening window blinds during take-off and landing allows crew and passengers to assess conditions outside the aircraft quickly should an evacuation become necessary. Removing headphones allows passengers to hear announcements during the most critical phases of flight. Dimming the cabin lights allows eyes to adjust in advance, should external visibility suddenly be reduced. Returning seats upright keeps the route to the aisle clear and gives the passenger behind room to adopt the brace position if required. Keeping a seatbelt fastened whenever seated protects against unexpected clear-air turbulence even after the sign has been switched off.

Two further items are less intuitive. Dreyer notes that leaving carry-on baggage behind in an evacuation makes a significant difference, because bags delay passengers, block aisles, damage evacuation slides and slow an evacuation when every second counts. And aircraft ashtrays continue to be fitted despite smoking being prohibited, because they provide the safest place to extinguish a cigarette should someone ignore the rule, a design decision that assumes the prohibition will occasionally fail and mitigates the consequence rather than relying on compliance.

WHERE PASSENGERS MOST OFTEN GET IT WRONG

The area Dreyer identifies as causing the most confusion is lithium batteries. Power banks, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, cameras, smartwatches, wireless earbuds, portable gaming devices and a wide range of everyday electronics contain lithium-ion cells. While generally safe, damaged or faulty batteries can overheat, emit smoke or catch fire, which makes how they are carried the critical question.

Dreyer set out the principle underlying the rules: lithium batteries are among the few items passengers travel with that carry very specific international safety requirements, which have received multiple regulatory updates recently. If a battery overheats in the cabin, crew can respond immediately. If it is packed in checked baggage, it becomes far more difficult to detect and manage. That single distinction explains almost every restriction that follows, the objective is to ensure any thermal event happens where someone can see it and act.

Items commonly overlooked because passengers do not think of them as batteries include smartwatches and fitness trackers, wireless earbuds and Bluetooth headphones, spare camera batteries, drones and drone batteries, rechargeable electric toothbrushes and razors, and e-cigarettes and vape devices.

WHAT LIFT ASKS PASSENGERS TO DO

• Power banks and spare lithium batteries must never be packed in checked baggage.
• A maximum of two power banks may be carried, each not exceeding 100Wh.
• Power banks may not be recharged, or used to charge another device, during the flight.
• If cabin baggage is checked at the boarding gate, power banks and spare batteries must be removed first.
• Any device that becomes hot, swells, emits smoke or smells unusual should be reported to cabin crew immediately.

The instruction to remove power banks before gate-checking a bag is the one most easily missed in practice, because it arises at the point where a passenger is already boarding and being asked to hand over luggage. It is also the point at which a battery most often ends up in the hold by accident rather than intent.

THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN

LIFT has updated its airport signage, check-in communications and onboard announcements, and reports that the data indicates a substantial decline in undeclared lithium items since January, an improvement the airline attributes to changing passenger behaviour alongside mitigation and awareness efforts by airlines and airports. Items detected at OR Tambo International Airport baggage screening have dropped by more than 50 per cent since January across all airlines, international and domestic, from around 2,000 rejections to approximately 1,000. LIFT itself has recorded nine occasions in 2026 of undeclared power banks or lithium batteries identified through airport screening since January.

Dreyer said air travel is one of the safest forms of transport because the industry never stops learning and improving, and that the airline wants passengers to arrive at the airport confident about what they can and cannot pack. He noted that these are not airline preferences but internationally recognised aviation safety requirements designed to protect passengers, crew and aircraft, and that a quick check before leaving home can avoid delays and contribute to a safer journey.