You arrive on the airport in loads of time to verify in. You attain the departure gate early. You board, strolling all the way down to your seat – and that’s whenever you uncover the overhead lockers are already full.
An excessive amount of carry-on baggage can considerably delay departures, as cabin crew attempt to squeeze every thing in – or ship baggage all the way 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 totally different baggage guidelines for various airways?
New guidelines for carry-on in Australia and past
On February 2, 2026, Virgin Australia modified their carry-on baggage coverage for home flights.
Economic system passengers will probably be restricted to 1 standard-sized cabin bag for the overhead locker, weighing as much as 8kg. A small, private merchandise that may match beneath a seat can even be allowed.
Worldwide airways are additionally adjusting their carry-on baggage guidelines. A few yr in the past, Air Canada restricted fundamental fare passengers to only one private article for flights throughout North and Central America.
However the guidelines are complicated.
You possibly can fly on the identical sort of airplane from Sydney to Melbourne – equivalent to a widely-used Boeing 737 – however relying on the airline and what you paid to your ticket, you’ll have utterly totally different bag and weight restrictions.
When you fly with Qantas inside Australia, your carry-on must be:
- one small private merchandise plus one normal 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 provider Jetstar is totally different once more, permitting as much as 7kg of carry-on baggage allowance, shared throughout two objects.
So, how do airways really set bag and weight limits?
Why passenger and baggage weight issues
Every plane has a most take-off weight, which might’t be exceeded to make sure it’s a protected flight. That whole contains the load of the airplane, plus gas, food and drinks provides within the galley, any cargo, the load of the pilots and cabin crew, and the load of the passengers and baggage.
Checked baggage is weighed on the check-in desk or bag drop. However what about carry-on baggage?
If a airplane is small, with fewer than seven passengers, precise passenger weights are wanted. When you fly in distant components of Australia – equivalent to island-hopping within the Torres Strait – it’s a must to weigh your self, alongside together with your baggage, on the airport.
However for larger planes on busier routes, Australian rules enable a mean passenger weight to calculate the overall passenger weight.
At first of my flying profession in 1998, the regulated normal weight for passengers flying in Australia was 77kg per individual (excluding carry-on baggage).
However as individuals’s common weight has elevated, the legislation has tried to maintain up.
For planes with a most seating capability of 150-299 seats, like a Boeing 737, the present normal weight of an grownup male passenger is assumed to be 81.8kg, whereas it’s 66.7kg for grownup girls.
Then the usual weight for carry-on baggage is 7kg per passenger.
Nonetheless, the legislation additionally permits 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 Security Authority.
That permits totally different airways to have totally different guidelines round cabin baggage.
Billions of {dollars} for luggage and different extras
Carry-on baggage guidelines was far more normal.
However the rise of low-cost airways modified all that, charging for additional baggage, in-flight WiFi and food and drinks as ancillary income: mainly something past the essential ticket.
The Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation forecast ancillary income (together with for additional baggage) will probably be price US$144 billion (round A$220 billion) this yr. That’s greater than the worth of transporting cargo world wide by air.
Natasha Heap is a Program Director for the Bachelor of Aviation on the College of Southern Queensland.
This text is republished from The Conversation beneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the original article.
At the moment, how a lot you may pack often depends upon the fare or upgrades you select.
Many passengers attempt to keep away from ancillary charges by taking every thing as carry-on. However airways know this, in order that they cost passengers additional for exceeding carry-on limits.
Lighten your load for a safer journey
Carry-on baggage is a literal ache for cabin crew, who often undergo again and lifting accidents whereas serving to passengers stow heavy baggage in overhead compartments.
Past bodily threat, crew members should cope with the time-consuming congestion of passengers fighting massive objects throughout boarding.
In an emergency, passengers stopping to seize baggage reasonably than leaving them behind has been confirmed to decelerate 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.