Can you take matches on a plane?
Carry-on: Conditions Checked: No Same on domestic flights
One box of safety matches, carried on your person. Strike-anywhere matches are banned entirely, and no matches can go in checked baggage.
The logic is that a fire source has to be somewhere the crew can reach. That is why one box of safety matches or one small lighter is allowed on your person, and why neither can go in checked baggage, where a fire would be out of sight in the hold.
Strike-anywhere matches are banned outright, because the thing that makes them convenient - igniting against any rough surface - is exactly what makes them dangerous in a moving bag.
It is one or the other, not both, and "on your person" is meant literally: in a pocket, not in the bag in the overhead locker.
Flying within Australia? This rule does not change.
This is a dangerous-goods rule, so it is identical on a domestic flight.
Two rules explain most of this page. Lithium batteries fly in the cabin so the crew can reach them, and the 100ml liquid limit is an international rule. Your flight home is screened under the departure country's rules, which are sometimes stricter than Australia's.
Matches: common questions
Can you take matches on a plane in Australia?
One box of safety matches, carried on your person rather than in your bag. Strike-anywhere matches are banned entirely, and no matches of any kind may go in checked baggage.
Can you put matches or a lighter in checked baggage?
No. Both have to be on your person in the cabin, where crew can reach them. This is a dangerous-goods rule, so it applies identically on domestic and international flights.
Can you take a lighter on a plane in Australia?
One small lighter per passenger, carried on your person. Lighter fuel, blue-flame and cigar lighters, and lighters that can be switched on accidentally are not permitted.
Can you take both matches and a lighter?
No. The allowance is one fire source per passenger, carried on you - either a box of safety matches or one small lighter, not both.
Flying soon? Screening is the easy part
What stops Australians at the airport is more often the passport, the visa or the phone than the bag. Say where you are going and we will show you the entry rules for an Australian passport, what an eSIM actually costs there, and what the insurance covers.
Smoking & fire
What is actually worth booking.
New destination guides and side-by-side comparisons for Australian travellers - which eSIM, which travel card, which insurance is worth paying for, and what to sort before you go. Prices in Australian dollars, a few emails a year.
Packing something else? The full A to Z of what you can take on a plane covers 61 items, the domestic flight rules set out what changes when you are not leaving the country, and the pre-departure checklist puts the rest of the trip in order.
Last reviewed 2 September 2026. Screening, dangerous-goods and biosecurity rules change, and airlines can be stricter than the government baseline. For anything unusual, the linked source and your airline's dangerous-goods page are the final word.