I know the secret to solving airport chaos – and it's not what you think
The mountain of luggage which suddenly accumulated at Heathrow terminal after a technical malfunction last weekend was the latest problem to beset UK airports this year. Some travellers were forced to take off without their bags while others suffered a long wait at check-in and those arriving faced a delay of up to two hours to get their suitcases back.
Photographs of the huge stack of suitcases sent a particular shiver down my spine because I have never quite trusted airport baggage systems. Not only do I fear loss, but I hate the queues at check-in and the miserable wait at the baggage carousel on arrival. It’s the last thing you want when you finally get to your destination after a long journey. As a result I have, whenever feasible, always limited myself to hand baggage. It may mean the occasional scrub and rinse laundry session in a hotel basin but, for me, that is a price worth paying.
It’s a tactic which is especially effective at a moment when check-in queues have been snaking out of airport terminals. But it was also an early initiative of no-frills airlines and a key part of their success. If passengers don’t check in luggage it saves the airline time and money when it comes to processing bags and especially helps them with a quick turnaround, so that planes can be used more efficiently. Hence fares were set lower to encourage travelling with hand baggage only.
In recent years, however, this became problematic. Too many passengers were carrying too much on board and there wasn’t enough room in the cabin to stow it all. Of course, that then became another opportunity for the airlines. Ryanair, for example, simply reduced the size of bag you were allowed to carry on board on a basic fare. If you want a bigger one, you have to pay more. And most airlines now have a complex fare structure which depends on the size, number and weight, of both carry-on and checked in bags.
What’s more, there is little consistency between airlines, especially when it comes to sizes. You can buy a cabin bag measuring 56x45x25cm – which meets the requirements of BA and Easyjet for example – but it will be too big for Ryanair, whose limits are 55x40x20cm. As for the smaller “personal bags” – all three of those airlines have different size limits.
And even if you carry the correct-size bag then there are still sometimes problems with insufficient space in the cabin on busy flights. I was on a heavily-booked BA service to Marseille the other day and some passengers were required to hand over their hand baggage at the gate so that it can be checked into the hold. That’s really irritating when you have packed carefully to avoid just that.
In short, the rules for carry-on baggage have become ridiculously complex and confusing. It’s time for reform. Here’s what the aviation industry needs to do.
Re-configure cabins and overhead lockers so that there is enough space for everyone to bring a reasonably sized bag on board, even when the plane is full. Perhaps an additional rack at the front of the plane would help. It can’t be beyond the wit of layout designers to solve this.
Standardise cabin bag sizes. We need a clear one-size-fits-all British or ideally international standard which defines the maximum dimensions for cabin bags and that luggage manufacturers can work to. Then gate staff wouldn’t have to dally about trying to fit cases into a frame, they could just check the label.
Abandon the 10kg hand baggage weight limits imposed by most airlines. This just adds to the complexity and bureaucracy at the gate. Easyjet used to have no limit, but sadly it has now imposed one at 15kg.
Comb the boarding queues and enforce the rules more efficiently, so that passengers who are trying to break the rules are picked up before they cause hold-ups at the desk.
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