Unfortunate News for the Passengers! International Air Transport Association (IATA) has proposed new strategy to reduce the size of the hand luggage, which passengers are supposed to keep in the overhead cabins during the flight. According to the new guidelines, the alteration in the luggage size is quite harsh.
It involves a huge cut in the size of the bag, which will be about half of the current allowance rules that are applied by the airlines. The projected new dimension of the bag is 55cm x 35cm x 19cm, which is quite smaller than the previous one, which is 56cm x 45cm x 25cm.
This issue will be quite frustrating for the travellers as the new size will not be enough to even pack for a daylong trip, which in turn will be quite costly and bothersome for them. Rather than carrying two bags, people carry one bag to evade extra charges and to avoid misplacement of the luggage.
On the other hand, the issue of lost baggage would also occur in this scenario. Moreover, it would also cause a problem as the queues at the drop bag area, the luggage retrieving areas would be too long, and the passengers would be having no choice but to wait for their luggage.
These guidelines are not mandatory in nature but some of the airlines are already opting to switch to this plan. This way they will be able to generate more revenue and lessen down the stacking of the overhead lockers. The IATA member Airlines such as Cathay Pacific, China Southern, Lufthansa and Emirates are some of the pioneer airlines, who have confirmed to apply the new rules.
On the other hand, British Airways and Virgin Airlines have shown no such intention so far. According to these airlines, the current baggage allowance will remain the same, as they claim to regard their customers demand and facilitate them at their best.
On the contrary, Airlines such as Easy Jet and Ryan Air, which are not IATA members, are also on the view of not proceeding with these new guidelines as they consider it an unnecessary burden on their customers; however, they plan to retain their cost on checked baggage. Ryan Air seems to continue with its tradition to allow two handbags for the passengers to take on the flight.
But it is not unlikely that airlines who does not seem impressed by IATA‘s new luggage proposal, don’t give it a thought later on due to the competition in the market and they can justify their claim of reducing the size, especially for the smaller aircraft.
Nevertheless, this strategy is being devised to get rid of the chaos in the flights when the overhead cabins become choked full and the extra luggage is sometimes put on hold or is placed on the empty seats to cope up with the situation. Nonetheless, this does not mean that the passengers be penalized for this. It is a technical discrepancy on the part of the airlines and their manufacturers for the small cabins. Initiation of such practice will only enhance intricacy for the travellers and will fall heavy on their pockets.
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