One size fits all? Brussels mulls harmonised cabin bag standards

The EU executive is considering a Europe-wide standard for the dimensions of cabin baggage, Transport and Tourism Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas has confirmed, in a move that will surely trigger a fresh political battle among lawmakers and airlines.

“The Commission acknowledges the potential inconvenience and confusion for passengers which results from the many different hand luggage policies in place at different airlines,” Tzitzkostas said on Wednesday.

The Greek politician was responding to a written question from Merja Kyllönen, a member of The Left group in the European Parliament, who had suggested that “the size of passengers’ cabin baggage can effectively determine which airline they can travel with”.

While Tzitzikostas did not address this hypothesis explicitly, he told the Finnish lawmaker that the EU executive did “not see the variations in the rules on the size of cabin baggage as an obstacle to free movement or the functioning of the internal market”.

“However, common standards would improve clarity for consumers and make it easier to compare ticket offers of different airlines,” he wrote. To this end, the Commission was “looking at possible measures to clarify rules on cabin baggage allowances, including possible standards”, Tzitzikostas said.

Knives out

Any such proposal would be included in an imminent revision of the Air Services Regulation, for which a public consultation closed in December and a proposal is planned for the end of June.

It would also open a new front in a political battle between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, which has sided with airlines in rejecting calls for mandatory free carry-on luggage and the proposal to restrict passengers’ right to compensation for delayed flights.

Negotiations over those issues have more or less reached a stalemate, and it appears increasingly likely the overhaul of the Air Passenger Rights Regulation might collapse entirely.

(jp)