You arrive on the airport in loads of time to test in. You attain the departure gate early. You board, strolling right down to your seat – and that’s if you uncover the overhead lockers are already full.
An excessive amount of carry-on baggage can significantly delay departures, as cabin crew attempt to squeeze all the things in – or ship luggage right down to the maintain.
As a former pilot turned aviation security researcher, clearer guidelines for carry-on baggage are welcome, not least as a result of an excessive amount of cabin baggage is an actual security concern.
However as extra airways set carry-on limits, why are there completely different baggage guidelines for various airways?
New guidelines for carry-on in Australia and past
From Monday February 2 2026, Virgin Australia will change their carry-on baggage policy for home flights.
Economic system passengers shall be restricted to 1 standard-sized cabin bag for the overhead locker, weighing as much as 8kg. A small, private merchandise that may match underneath a seat will even be allowed.
Worldwide airways are additionally adjusting their carry-on baggage guidelines. A few yr in the past, Air Canada restricted primary fare passengers to only one private article for flights throughout North and Central America.
However the guidelines are complicated.
You would fly on the identical kind of airplane from Sydney to Melbourne – akin to a widely-used Boeing 737 – however relying on the airline and what you paid in your ticket, you’ll have utterly completely different bag and weight restrictions.
Should you fly with Qantas inside Australia, your carry-on needs to be:
- one small private merchandise plus one commonplace piece of 10kg, or
- two smaller items, the place each bit should not exceed 10kg, and the overall weight of each items is 14kg, or
- one small piece and a garment bag, the place each bit should not exceed 10kg and the overall weight of each items is 14kg.
Funds service Jetstar is completely different once more, permitting as much as 7kg of carry-on baggage allowance, shared throughout two gadgets.
So how do airways truly set bag and weight limits?
Why passenger and baggage weight issues
Every plane has a most take-off weight, which may’t be exceeded to make sure it’s a secure flight. That whole contains the burden of the airplane, plus gasoline, foods and drinks provides within the galley, any cargo, the burden of the pilots and cabin crew, and the burden of the passengers and baggage.
Checked baggage is weighed on the check-in desk or bag drop. However what about carry-on luggage?
If a airplane is small, with fewer than seven passengers, precise passenger weights are wanted. Should you fly in distant components of Australia – akin to island-hopping within the Torres Strait – you must weigh your self, alongside together with your luggage, on the airport.
However for greater planes on busier routes, Australian regulations permit a mean passenger weight to calculate whole passenger weight.
In the beginning of my flying profession in 1998, the regulated commonplace weight for passengers flying in Australia was 77kg per particular person (excluding carry-on baggage).
However as individuals’s common weight has elevated, the regulation has tried to maintain up.
For planes with a most seating capability of 150-299 seats, like a Boeing 737, the present standard weight of an grownup male passenger is assumed to be 81.8kg, whereas it’s 66.7kg for grownup ladies.
Then the usual weight for carry-on baggage is 7kg per passenger.
Nonetheless, the law also allows particular person airways to hunt approval for their very own passenger and cabin baggage weights. That needs to be authorised by the regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
That permits completely different airways to have completely different guidelines round cabin baggage.
Billions of {dollars} for baggage and different extras
Carry-on baggage guidelines was way more commonplace.
However the rise of low-cost airways modified all that, charging for additional baggage, in-flight WiFi and foods and drinks as ancillary revenue: principally something past the fundamental ticket.
The Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation forecast ancillary income (together with for additional baggage) shall be price US$144 billion (round A$220 billion) this yr. That’s greater than the worth of transporting cargo world wide by air.
At the moment, how a lot you possibly can pack often is determined by the fare or upgrades you select.
Many passengers attempt to keep away from ancillary charges by taking all the things as carry-on. However airways know this, so charge passengers extra for exceeding carry-on limits.
Lighten your load for a safer journey
Carry-on baggage is literal ache for cabin crew, who regularly undergo back and lifting injuries whereas serving to passengers stow heavy luggage in overhead compartments.
Past bodily threat, crew members should take care of the time-consuming congestion of passengers combating giant gadgets throughout boarding.
In an emergency, passengers stopping to seize luggage slightly than leaving them behind has been confirmed to slow down evacuations.
So the subsequent time you’re on the brink of journey, bear in mind: if you wish to take off on time and be safer in an emergency, pack lighter.
Your cabin crew will thanks for it.
- Natasha Heap, Program Director for the Bachelor of Aviation, University of Southern Queensland
This text is republished from The Conversation underneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the original article.
