Can You Take Walkie-Talkies on a Plane?

Walkie-talkies go in a bag like any other electronic device, and the security line is not usually where the trouble starts. The two things that catch travelers out are lithium batteries — which have their own federal rules — and the assumption that a radio legal in the US is legal wherever the plane lands.

What TSA says

TSA's own "What Can I Bring?" entry for a radio is short: "You may transport this item in carry-on or checked bags," with the standard notes to check with the airline that a carry-on item fits, and that "the final decision rests with the TSA officer on whether an item is allowed through the checkpoint" ( TSA: Radio).

In practice: take the radios out of the bag if asked, expect a swab or a second look at a bag of several identical radios with coiled cables, and be ready to power one on. Screening officers can ask you to switch a device on, and a device that will not power up may not be allowed aboard — which is a good reason not to fly with flat batteries.

The battery rules that matter

This is the part worth reading twice, because it is federal hazardous-materials law rather than airline preference (49 CFR 175.10):

• Devices with lithium batteries may travel in carry-on or checked bags — but a device in a checked bag must be "completely switched off" and protected from damage and accidental activation.
• Spare lithium batteries must be in carry-on baggage only. Never in checked luggage. This is the rule that most often turns into a gate conversation.
• Spares must be individually protected against short circuits — original retail packaging, tape over the terminals, or each battery in its own bag or pouch.
• Watt-hour limits: lithium-ion batteries must not exceed 100 Wh, with airline approval required between 100 and 160 Wh and no more than two such spares per person. Every consumer walkie-talkie pack is far below 100 Wh, so the limit is not your problem; the packaging rule is.

Alkaline AA and AAA cells are not lithium batteries and are not covered by those limits, which is one more quiet argument for radios with an alkaline fallback — Motorola publishes up to 28 hours on three AA alkalines for the T470 (T470 datasheet).

Can you use one in flight?

No — not on a scheduled flight. The FAA rule prohibits operating a portable electronic device aboard an aircraft operated by an air carrier, except for a short list (voice recorders, hearing aids, pacemakers, electric shavers) and "any other portable electronic device that the operator of the aircraft has determined will not cause interference with the navigation or communication system" (14 CFR 91.21). The airline makes that determination, and no airline has made it for a transmitting two-way radio.

So: radios off and stowed for the flight, on again at the terminal. Receiving only is still operating the device, so leave them off.

The rule people forget: the destination

FRS and GMRS are US authorizations. FRS is licensed by rule in the US with no fee and a 2-watt cap on the main channels (47 CFR 95.567, FCC: Family Radio Service) — and that authorization stops at the border. Other countries allocate those frequencies differently; several makers sell a separate European PMR446 version of the same radio for exactly this reason, and some radios are marked for US use only.

Carrying the radios is a customs question; transmitting on them is a licensing question in whatever country you are standing in. Before you plan to use them abroad, check the destination's own rules — and for a cruise, check the cruise line's policy too, which we cover in do walkie-talkies work on cruise ships.

How to pack them

1. Switch every radio fully off — not standby, and not VOX-enabled, so nothing in the bag keys up.
2. Carry-on for the radios and all spare batteries, with terminals taped or in packaging.
3. Leave a little charge in them so you can power one on if asked.
4. Pack earpieces separately. A coil of thin cable around a radio looks worse on an X-ray than it needs to.
5. Take the AA or AAA tray if you have one, because alkaline cells are easy to buy at your destination and have no battery paperwork at all.

And when you land

Inside the US, switch them on and use them as normal — theme parks, ski resorts, national parks, conferences and campgrounds are all ordinary FRS territory, and the radios do not care that they arrived by air. Our Disney and skiing pages cover the two destinations people fly with radios for most often, and walkie-talkie channels covers picking a channel in a crowded place.