Are magnets still a problem as luggage on air travel?

12/1/2020 8:15:26 PM

After a 41 minutes long phone call with the official Air France information hotline (+49 69 2999 3772) and near the end of that call, after a long wait, while a supervisor was doing research, I received an oral answer:

"Nowhere in Air France internal documentation household-size magnets are listed as prohibited luggage. So in conclusion such magnets are presently allowed!" Today is November 19 in 2020.

I then pointed out that on the check-in-counters of certain airports I have noticed permanent stickers with symbols of prohibited items like fire-arms, fire-works and magnets. But the hotline agent told me that those are generic prohibitions and presently Air France does not object to my travel with two house-hold magnets (for playing petanques and able to lift about half a kilo of steel).

I have not insisted an answer about my heavy duty magnets for welding because such might be considered industrial matter and might be beyond the scope of a regular hotline.

The kind person offered me on request a written confirmation, to be packed with our magnets. (This is an exception, granted, because I had an exceptionally long waiting time on the phone.)

So I will pack those magnets very well (will read some more) and will place copies of the mail from the hotline directly with the magnets and also with my ticket. I will then report here after our flight on how it went.

Update: we took the trip yesterday, by Air France, from Germany to Paris and then on to an African country. I checked in online and had to declare on my honour that I was not carrying any forbidden items. I did. Magnets were not even on the list of forbidden items. The trip went well and our carry-ons were deeply searched (we had a lot) but everything was in order. So I assume, that all checked luggage was also searched well (not much travel these days). In conclusion I can share that travel with a few household magnets (in my case two magnets that can lift about one kilo each, for playing petanque) was no problem on Air France in 2020. But magnets were well packed in the center of my suitcase and secured against movement.

10/22/2020 8:33:25 AM

A commercial airliner is not going to "go off course" because of magnets, because they use GPS and many other means (VOR, inertial navigation, etc) to plot and stay on course. However, they can still cause interference with both aircraft systems and potentially other passengers’ belongings, since eg. hard disks can be sensitive to magnets.

IATA’s regulations state that for regular cargo, the magnetic field should be less than 5.25 milligauss at a distance of 7 feet. This is not very much, and in fact is so low that it can be hard to measure, but this blog from a magnet company has some ideas.

Note that Air France may have their own regulations on top of this, so the safest course is to call them up and ask. If you can get through to the cargo department, they can probably advise what’s possible and how to pack it, since just chucking them in your suitcase is probably not going to cut it.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

Search Posts

Latest posts

Popular posts