How many drone batteries can be carried on a U.S. Airliner?

[Interficiam Stercore]

Information acquired from reputable Internet sources and directly from airline websites. However, PLEASE CALL YOUR AIRLINE and drone battery manufacturer PRIOR TO TAKING ANY DRONE BATTERIES ONBOARD THE PLANE. Do not place drone batteries in checked baggage. The following Battery Watt hours will help you when talking with an airline representative.

How many drone batteries can be carried on a U.S. Airliner?

It's all about Watt Hours per battery.

DJI Mavic 2 battery has 59.29wH. = SMALL

EVO II Intelligent Flight Battery, with a rated capacity of 82 Wh = SMALL

Airlines classify batteries into 3 categories. Small, Medium and Large.
"Airline flights; Large batteries are prohibited. Medium-sized batteries are limited to 2, and
there is no maximum on Small batteries, ie less than 100 Watt hours, though we recommend carrying less than 20.
It's also recommended each is stored separately in it's own fire resistant bag/battery container."

"Note that with regards to the sizes mentioned, small is a battery with less than 100 Watt-hours, the medium is a battery with between 100 – 160 Watt-hours and large is anything over 160 Watt-hours."


Here Are some other drone battery Watt Hours:

DJI Spark – 43.6 Watt-hours

DJI Mavic Air – 43.6 Watt-hours

DJI Mavic Pro – 43.6 Watt-hours

DJI Mavic Pro 2/Mavic Zoom – 43.6 Watt-hours -59.29 Watt hours as noted above.

DJI Phantom 3 – 68 Watt-hours

DJI Phantom 4 – 81.3 Watt-hours

DJI Inspire 1 – 129.96 Watt-hours = MEDIUM

DJI Inspire 2 – 97.58 Watt-hours

Yuneec Typhoon H – 79.9 Watt-hours

These Watt hours may not be completely accurate. I have seen different watt hours quoted depending on the site visited.
Check with the battery manufacturer to be certain.
This post was meant to give you all some idea of what to expect when traveling with drones in the USA.

 

[Interficiam Stercore]

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD ANY KNOWLEDGE YOU MAY HAVE OR ANY EXPERIENCE(S) YOU MAY HAVE HAD TRANSPORTING DRONE BATTERIES. Thank You.

 

[Meta4]

These Watt hours may not be completely accurate. I have seen different watt hours quoted depending on the site visited.
Check with the battery manufacturer to be certain.

DJI batteries have their capacity in Wh printed on them.
All DJI consumer drone batteries are <100Wh.

It's also recommended each is stored separately in it's own fire resistant bag/battery container."

Recommended by people positing in forums.
But no airline or air safety authority makes such a recommendation.
The TSA check people and airline personnel have no idea what Lipo bags are and won't care if you do or don't have them.
If they care about anything, it would be that their terminals are protected from shorting.

 

[hiflyer201]

In my experience no one has ever asked for a count ...or ever asked anything.

 

[RoarRoar]

A lot of people here clearly don’t fly very often. I have never been questioned about drone, camera, computer batteries ever in hundreds of flights.

 

[tlyons]

...
How many drone batteries can be carried on a U.S. Airliner?

It's all about Watt Hours per battery.

...

I used to carry a Dell battery pack that the laptop plugged into. Dozen's of US domestic trips, no questions. Narita (Tokyo) and Pudong (Shanghai, China) both wanted to verify that the battery was <100Whrs. Just my story.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Yep, shorting the lipo terminals is . . . well, terminal for the battery, and can easily start a lipo fire.
At the very least a short can permanently damage your battery.
So the little printed terminal caps, or simply tape over the terminals to protect these, even if just for your own peace of mind.

I generally put each battery in it's own heavy duty ziplock bag and place in their own compartments in my carry on drone backpack.
Have only ever been asked once for a look inside, they just scanned the open drone compartment with all the gear and said fine.

After recently seeing how lipo bags do contain a fire quite well, I've ordered 10 for my individual batteries (for 2 drones), as I can see how in a bag overhead they will be greatly beneficial in slowing / eliminating spread to other batteries.