Regulatory framework
IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations
How the ICAO Technical Instructions become the rules an airline actually applies, and why acceptance has to be checked carrier by carrier.
Last reviewed 2026-08-28
Read this as orientation, not as authority
This page summarises a regulatory position for planning purposes. It may contain errors or omissions, it is not legal, safety or regulatory advice, and the underlying rules are amended on cycles of their own. Nothing here states what hansa express holds or is approved for. Confirm the current requirement with the competent authority, or ask us about your actual consignment, before you act on it.
The legal chain
Three documents sit behind every dangerous goods air shipment, and it helps to keep them straight. Annex 18 to the Chicago Convention establishes that dangerous goods carriage by air is governed by a binding instrument. The detail is in the ICAO Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (Doc 9284), which is the law, adopted into national aviation regulations and revised on a two-year cycle.
The IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations is the industry field manual built on top of the Technical Instructions. It reproduces their requirements in a form usable at a counter or a warehouse, adds the industry's own operational requirements, and is republished annually with effect from 1 January.
The two are not identical, and where they differ the DGR is generally the more restrictive. Complying with the DGR will normally satisfy the Technical Instructions; the reverse is not guaranteed. Since airlines contract on the DGR, it is usually the practical reference — but where a legal question arises, the Technical Instructions are the instrument that governs.
State and operator variations
This is the feature of air transport that most often surprises shippers coming from road or sea. Both states and individual operators may file variations — additional or more restrictive requirements applying to their territory or their aircraft — and these are published as part of the regulations.
The consequence is that a routing, not a shipment, is what gets approved. The same consignment may be acceptable to one carrier and refused by the next; acceptable on a direct service and refused on a routing that transits a third country whose state variation prohibits it; acceptable outbound and problematic on the return.
For regulated cargo this means the transit points matter as much as the two ends. A technical stop, a change of aircraft, or an interline transfer can each bring a new set of variations into play, and it is why acceptance is confirmed carrier by carrier and routing by routing rather than assumed from the classification.
Passenger aircraft, cargo aircraft, and forbidden
Each entry in the dangerous goods list carries separate provisions for passenger and cargo aircraft, with separate quantity limits and packing instructions, and a substantial number of entries are marked forbidden on one or both.
For Class 1, most divisions are forbidden on passenger aircraft. Division 1.4S is the classification most commonly acceptable, which is a direct consequence of how that group is defined — the effects of accidental functioning are confined to the package. Even so, acceptability is decided per UN entry in the current edition rather than by division alone, and an operator variation can restrict it further.
The planning consequence is that air is rarely the default mode for explosives. Where it is used it is because the consignment is small, time-critical, and of a classification that air will take — and the routing has been built around carriers that will accept it, sometimes as a charter rather than on scheduled services.
Training, documentation and acceptance
Training moved to a competency-based model, in which personnel are trained and assessed against the functions they actually perform rather than against a fixed category. Shippers, packers, freight forwarders, ground handlers and operators each have defined responsibilities, and an acceptance check will look for evidence that the person who prepared the consignment was competent to do so.
The document set centres on the Shipper's Declaration for Dangerous Goods, the air waybill with its dangerous goods statement, and the operator's acceptance checklist, which is completed before the consignment is taken. The checklist is where most errors are caught, and it is the reason apparently minor inconsistencies — a proper shipping name that does not match the UN number, a packing instruction that does not match the packaging, a missing signature — result in the consignment being handed back.
Common questions
What is the difference between the ICAO Technical Instructions and the IATA DGR?
The Technical Instructions are the legal instrument, adopted into national aviation law and revised every two years. The IATA DGR is the industry manual built on them, republished annually and generally more restrictive. Airlines contract on the DGR, so it is the day-to-day reference, but the Technical Instructions are what governs in law.
Can explosives travel by air at all?
Some can. Most Class 1 divisions are forbidden on passenger aircraft, and 1.4S is the classification most commonly acceptable. Whether a specific consignment can fly is decided by its UN entry in the current edition, then by the carrier's own variations, then by every state on the routing — which is why it is confirmed carrier by carrier before a booking, never assumed.
Why did one airline accept a shipment another refused?
Operator variations. Airlines may file requirements stricter than the regulations for their own aircraft, and states may do the same for their territory. Two carriers on the same city pair can therefore reach different answers about identical cargo, entirely lawfully.
Does a transit stop change what is allowed?
It can. A state variation applies to the territory concerned, so a technical stop, an aircraft change or an interline transfer can bring a new prohibition into play that neither the origin nor the destination imposes. Routings for regulated cargo are checked end to end, including the points in between.
Sources and verification
Planning a movement like this?
Send the cargo, the two ends of the lane and the date. If we cannot move it ourselves we will tell you who can — same day.