For the matchbook collector...guess you'll need to dispose of all the actual matches in order to keep the matchbook covers in your carry on luggage?...either that or illegally pack them in your checked luggage???

Next on no-fly list: Lighters, matches
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
Airline passengers will no longer be allowed to bring lighters or matches on planes under a new U.S. security policy expected to go into effect within two months.
The ban will require federal screeners to confiscate lighters and matches from passengers trying to take them through security. The policy could force airports to halt smoking in restaurants and lounges located beyond checkpoints. (Related story: Airport air unhealthy in many places, report says)

"We may be forced to do that," said Ian Redhead of the Airports Council International, an association that represents airport owners and operators around the world. "The only way somebody will be able to smoke is if you install lighters that can't be removed from the area."

The ban stems from concern that a terrorist could light explosives on an airplane, as "shoe bomber" Richard Reid attempted on a trans-Atlantic jetliner in late 2001. If Reid had used a lighter instead of matches, "he'd have blown up the airplane," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Dorgan and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., inserted a provision into the intelligence bill enacted in December that requires the Transportation Security Administration to bar butane lighters from airplane cabins.

The TSA is planning to extend the restriction to all lighters and matches in a rule that will be announced in the next week or two and take effect after a 30- to 45-day education campaign.

The new ban was supposed to take effect yesterday but "got stuck" in a review by the White House budget office, Dorgan said. (Photo gallery: Banned objects at the airport)

Dorgan said lighters and matches are real threats to aircraft, noting that the FBI has warned that terrorists want to use dolls stuffed with incendiary devices as a possible bomb on a plane.

Coupled with a longstanding ban on packing lighters and matches in checked luggage, the new restriction annoys some smokers who say it will force them to buy a lighter every time they travel.

"I'm not going to buy a $10-$12 lighter every time I go out there," says Doug Schneider, a South Dakota computer salesman who traveled 46 weeks last year. "I just won't take my cigars with me as often."

But Bob McBride, a corporate recruiter from Omaha and frequent air traveler, says buying a disposable lighter is cheap and easy — and a minor inconvenience in an age of shoe bombs.

"Anything you've got that's flammable or capable of ignition probably isn't a good thing either in luggage or in the plane," he says, "especially where so many weapons come in small packages."

The restriction will end a pre-9/11 policy that allowed air travelers to bring two lighters and four books of safety matches on an airplane. The existing policy also allows those items to be sold beyond security checkpoints.

Federal Aviation Administration has long banned flammables from airplane cargo holds.

Travelers caught going through security checkpoints with lighters or matches in their pockets or carry-on bags will have the items taken away, TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield says. But he acknowledges possible difficulty detecting plastic lighters and matches in X-ray machines and metal-detectors: "You can see some lighters in an X-ray. Matches are problematic."

The new ban has irked lighter manufacturers, who say some exceptions should be made. "It's really unfair to not allow people to carry lighters either in carry-on or checked luggage," says Jeff Duke, general counsel for Zippo Manufacturing.