The new lithium-ion battery ban on passenger aircraft as cargo

Lithium based batteries on commercial passenger aircraft have been regulated since 2008. That year, the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT) banned spare lithium based batteries from passengers' checked luggage.

At the end of last month, the US DOT formalized what U.S. based commercial passenger air carriers already had been doing. They banned the “transport of lithium-ion cells or batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft.” ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) had called for the ban since February, 2016.