Power Banks and Batteries: What Gets Stopped at Arlanda Security

Lithium batteries — in power banks, spare camera or laptop batteries, and similar devices — are required to travel in the cabin rather than in checked luggage, because a fault in a lithium battery can potentially cause a fire, and that's something crew can respond to quickly in the cabin but not in an inaccessible cargo hold. This is a well-established international rule, not an Arlanda-specific quirk, but it's exactly the kind of thing that gets forgotten when a power bank has been sitting in a suitcase pocket for months rather than a bag you actually think about at security.

There are limits on the capacity of batteries you can carry, and those limits — along with any quantity restrictions — are set by aviation safety regulators and can be updated. Check Swedavia's current guidance for Arlanda, or your airline's specific policy, before you pack rather than relying on what you remember from a previous trip; the exact numbers aren't something worth guessing at here when the official source is easy to check.

The simplest fix is a deliberate check of your hand luggage the night before, specifically looking for power banks, spare batteries and anything with a lithium cell — not relying on memory of what's normally in there. If you're travelling with a family, ask everyone individually rather than assuming one person has checked for the whole group, since these items tend to end up in whichever bag was closest when someone was charging a phone last.

A bag that's clearly packed with these items visible and accessible, rather than buried, also moves through a manual check faster if one happens — security staff can see and clear the item quickly rather than needing to dig through a full bag to find what triggered the screening.