Are magnets allowed in luggage for air travel?

Question

I have four heavy-duty magnets for welding purposes (to hold steel parts in place) which can lift several kilos of steel. And two lesser magnets to lift petanque balls from the ground for sports, they can lift only one kilo. If I put all that inside my luggage, in the center, you cannot feel anything, when testing with a light-weight metal probe. Will it still make a modern airplane go off course?

Since I cannot send magnets from Germany overseas by parcel (so they are dangerous, or what), and since I travel for work overseas, I would like to bring my magnets inside my checked luggage.

I seem to remember that magnets used to be shown on those check-in counters, together with fire-arms and other forbidden items. Have not had a chance to check a check-in-counter recently because was not traveling. And I seem to remember that back in 2015 I tried (inside checked luggage) and was asked to remove. So I am puzzled why in 2020 Air France does list exotic things like blood but does not mention magnets on their website.

I have just read through 32 pages of luggage instructions by Air France and magnets are not mentioned at all. But the page says that the list is not complete. It does not say where to find the rest.

I have tried, over the years, calling Air France but have never managed to get a satisfactory answer. Are large, powerful magnets allowed in checked luggage?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

Since much time has passed since the year 2000 I update here with a separate answer:

This year (2024) we travelled Air France again, two legs, one in Europe, one intercontinentally. Trip was fine, we like them. We carried five simple welding-magnets in one checked luggage item. Those are cheap but very useful "right angles" that you snap to objects for holding them while you weld.

They feel "strong" because they have weight from their frame-plates, and they snap with some noise to steel-parts. But the actual magnets inside are classic dark gray magnets, nothing like the modern high-stength type.

We made no attempt to hide or "shield" those simple magnets inside the luggage. I just snapped four units together in a square-arrangement, so that the magnetic forces all fed around in a "circle", hoping to have it more "contained" that way. We figured, if they would trigger some sensor, then the staff should be able to find and remove with minimal effort and without messing up the rest of the luggage. This worked fine, nothing was removed, we had no feedback or comment in any way.

Extra comment: I discovered that in certain shops they are now offering such welding-magnets in three different sizes. Ours would be the smallest size.

I discovered after arrival that by now, they are also available in our overseas-destination. So no more need to carry them from Europe. This is not worth a science-prize, but a reminder to myself: Spend more time searching for "special" items locally before you spend any time researching if or how to carry them in international luggage or mail-service.