UKC

I am travelling to Corsica via plane and wish to take a few canisters of Propane/Butane gas for a Jetboil. I have not travelled via plane much before... does anybody know if this gas is OK to put in the hold (I am presuming it would not be permitted in hand luggage)?

In reply to SophieEmily:

No, no and no.

http://www.heathrow.com/departures/security-and-baggage/hold-luggage-banned...

In reply to SophieEmily:

Definitely not.

In reply to SophieEmily:

Should be pretty easy to pick up some locally once you arrive. My JetBoil gets used everywhere

In reply to SophieEmily:

You may be able to get screw thread gas cylinders here (not sure how up to date the information is).
http://magasins.millet.fr/1191-millet-expert-shop (not open sunday)
blue camping gas is more generally available you can pick up a camping gas stove quite cheaply.

In reply to marsbar:
You can get an adapter to use the piercable 190g Camping Gaz cartridges in screw-thread stoves (EN417 type):

http://www.go-system.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/396/category/67/

Not sure how easy they are to get hold of.

You will, of course, need to remove the cartridge before flying back - be careful venting the unused gas.

In reply to SophieEmily:

Thanks all for your help!

I have taken a second look at the prohibited items list on Air Frances website - and this appears to include camping stoves. Does anyone have any experience of flying with a camping stove and getting it on board in their hold luggage.

In reply to SophieEmily:

The stove itself is not the problem, it's the fuel that the airlines won't carry. I've traveled with a burner in my hold baggage with no problem, and I don;t see why it should be a problem in your hand baggage either since it's not a weapon

In reply to SophieEmily:

I have flown with stoves, but it's up to the airline. I haven't flown air France.

In reply to Andy Chubb:
stoves are banned and will be removed from hand luggage (as has happened to friends of mine), I believe because residual fuel can cause panic with the scanning systems used in airports, and can be removed from luggage. However a small gas stove with no residuals packed amongst and obscured by climbing hardware in hold luggage shouldn't cause any problems

In reply to SophieEmily:

I've flown with a stove in hold baggage, but not Air France.

If your stove is gas only (or has only ever been used with gas if it's something like my Omnifuel), then you should be fine, as there won't be any fuel deposits to worry about.

In reply to SophieEmily:

I've flown with a petrol stove quite often: carefully rinsed and aired and reasonably dismantled, and component parts separated. No worse than a pair of overalls that you were wearing to fix the car IMHO. However, sometimes airport security takes a different view, but it's not happened to me

In reply to SophieEmily:

PRO TIP - surround your stove (clean with no fuel residue/odour if liquid fuel) with bit of metal climbing gear, and dot a few loose krabs around the rest of the bag to make things really easy for the human operator.... X-ray machine will see the big clump of vaguely climbing-looking metalwork, the operator will see the few single krabs in the rest of the bag and assume that all the metalwork is climbing gear.

If the stove dismantles as suggested, then all the better!

In reply to SophieEmily:


Have taken my jetboil in hold luggage on BA, Ryanair, EasyJet, Virgin, never Air France but can't imagine it would be any different.

In reply to seankenny:

The difference is that air France for whatever ridiculous reason specifically ban stoves. None of the airlines I have flown with did this.

In reply to marsbar:


It'll be because the checkin counter won't be able to identify whether the stove has residual fuel in it and whether that is a safety risk or not.

Same reason that thermometers are banned because the spillage of mercury from one thermometer can write off an entire aircraft through mercury poisoning of the aluminium. Of course alcohol thermometers aren't dangerous but it's not the checkin person's responsibility to identify the materials in the thermometer.

http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2013/08/07/mercury-and-aeroplanes/

In reply to SophieEmily:

It has nothing to do with the airlines and everything to do with the rules and their application by airport security. They take their lead from the aviation authorities that set the rules - the FAA, CAA & EASA, plus any local threat analysis that change the profiling and interpretation of those rules. The rules created by the authorities are a mix of safety (compressed gases, liquids that dissolve aluminium etc) and defence against malice.

Personally, I've never understood why a cheap aerosol filled with a flammable propellant is fine, but an empty petrol stove is not. Still, they've got to find it first.

I have checked air Canada, BA and easy jet. None of them ban stoves, only fuel.

In reply to marsbar:

Many years ago I had an empty multi-fuel stove confiscated (ie stolen) by United Airlines on the basis that they prohibited anything that had ever had fuel in it. Luckily this was on the return journey and they accepted that they shouldn't have allowed me to take it out in the first place, so paid for a new one.

Since then I only ever take butane stoves abroad.

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

I went to the trouble of rinsing my stove and bottle in cooking oil and putting it in a plastic bag with an elastic band as advised and got it to Greece and back ok. It was some time ago though.