Shipping Lithium Batteries by Air is hectic. Here's everything you need to know.

Lithium batteries power everything from phones to cars to medical devices, yet they are among the most difficult items to ship by air freight!

Regulations and Classification of Lithium Batteries in Air Transportation

Many countries and virtually all airlines have strict regulations regarding the shipment of lithium batteries because they have the potential to cause catastrophic damage to aircraft if anything goes wrong. [1]

[1] Three major lithium battery incidents on aircraft https://ansondg.net/downloads/file_Lithium_battery_accidents.pdf 

Lithium batteries are highly flammable: yet more concerning is if they catch fire, the fire burns incredibly hot, and is nearly impossible to stop.  While manufacturers have strict guidelines for batteries in terms of their encapsulation and safety measures to ensure they’re not over depleted, there are so many batteries on the market that there is a wide range of quality in terms of manufacturing safe and robust batteries.

To deal with the wide variety of batteries on the market, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set guidelines to classify batteries by their power, manufacturing quality, and risk to aircraft in the event of an emergency.

The classifications range from safe consumer products such as smartphones to dangerous industrial batteries that are banned from any aircraft. These international classifications provide broad guidelines for airlines in terms of which batteries are allowed on passenger planes, cargo only aircraft, and charter planes.

With the classifications in place, it is then up to specific airlines and the regulators in each country to define their local policies.  A battery allowed on one airline in one country is likely to be not allowed on other airlines or in other countries!

Optimizing Battery Shipping: Guidelines and Exemptions for Air Freight

All batteries are classified into two categories:

1. Batteries (not contained in or with equipment)
2. Batteries contained with or in equipment

In general, it is much easier to ship batteries contained within equipment than batteries by themselves.  So if there is a choice, keep the battery on the equipment when checking for air freight options or even better ship the cargo without a battery and find a battery at the destination.

Furthermore, high-quality batteries contained within equipment of a certain power and quality can be exempted from most air freight regulations.  When considering your equipment seek options where your batteries fall within these categories.

Finally, there are both Lithium Ion and Lithium Metal batteries on the market.  In general, it is easier to move Lithium Ion batteries by air freight as they are more exempted from regulations.

How to ship batteries by Air

In order to successfully ship batteries you should:

• If possible, don’t ship batteries by air!  The easiest way to have a smooth air cargo shipment is to do so without a battery all together.

• Seek out experts such as IATA certified freight forwarders or Dangerous Goods Packing Companies to provide advice and guide you through the regulations

• Know what you have.  Be careful of using Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to guide your expectations.  These are often broad covering multiple use cases of a particular battery.  The manufacturer of shipper of the product must have more specific details of the battery.

• Review the regulations.  The overall classifications of batteries can be found here.
• Budget higher than a normal airfreight shipment and expect to use Cargo Aircraft rather than passenger aircraft.
• Expect delays in your shipment due to regulations and unforeseen circumstances.  Not every airplane can carrier batteries even if a shipper can.

And, here are some items that you should not do: 

• Use the MSDS as a final guide to classify the batteries

• Tender the freight to airline without inspecting your freight and documentation for proper classification and labeling
• Classify a shipment with batteries as General Cargo or not accurately declaring the cargo

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