Which items are allowed to take out of aircraft?

Emirates business class (illustration)

According to the South China Morning Post, flight attendants at one of Hong Kong's largest airlines are required to check carefully, after a series of items on board such as kitchen knives, wineglass are taken

Items allowed to be taken away

• Single use items: On long flights, passengers can use bags with items such as eye pads, socks, toothbrushes ... These are free items for passengers. Single use items are not be very good quality, and especially not good for environment. If you do not open these bagb, the airline will use it for another passengers.
• Magazines: Noel Cabacungan, a travel blogger is often gazed by other passengers whenever he takes a magazine. Therefore, he has asked a number of airlines whether this is allowed or not. The airlines answered yes, including Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines.
• Food: Can passengers ask for one, or two more meals, a few bags of dried nuts? The answer is yes, if they are available. You should also bring your meals to continue eating when you get off the plane to protect the environment, because these leftovers should be legally discarded. However, do not bring these leftovers to a number of countries like Australia because they have strict quarantine laws.
• Vomit bags: These bags are for passengers, then you can take it away. Clemens Sehi, a travel blogger has a collection of vomit bags of more than 250 pieces from 50 countries.

Items not allowed to be taken away

• Blankets: This is an item not allowed to be taken away, even in business class, other than pajamas that are offer to passengers free of charge. At end of each flight, the flight attendants will collect the blankets, dry them to use for the next flights. Some airlines, especially in the US, sell blankets to passengers.
• Headphones: Normally, flight attendants always collect headphones after each flight. Headphone jacks on aircrafts are usually designed with two heads so that they cannot be used on outside, to prevent theft. Nowadays, modern aircraft have international standard headphone jacks so passengers can use their own headphones. Airline-branded headphones are generally not allowed to be taken away. However, some single use headphones are provided free of charge to passengers, often in disposable bags. Other airlines like Ryanair or Easyjet, sell to customers. Ideally, you should use your own headphones for better sound quality. Note that if you fly on older aircraft, jacks may not fit your headphoness.
• Eating utensils: Normally, passengers can freely take plastic items such as knives, forks, and metal items are absolutely not recommended. Some airlines, such as Virgin Atlantic, often lose salt and pepper shaker sets, which are not allowed to take away.
• Life jackets: According to George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, life jackets are often stolen. Many airlines must check the number of life jackets regularly to add to the lost ones.