Passengers often only check the size and permitted weight of hand luggage inadequately and only after instructions from staff. The result is delays in boarding and resulting flight delays. The Austrian Lufthansa subsidiary “Austrian Airlines” has had enough and is relying on stricter controls.
Anyone who has once stood at the baggage carousel and waited in vain for their suitcase will think carefully about checking in their luggage again next time. Or just travel with hand luggage. And in recent years there have been several episodes of suitcase chaos in Europe.
On a full or almost full flight, hand luggage often has to be handed in and checked in at the gate or even on the plane because there is not enough space on the plane. But it’s not just the amount of hand luggage that is becoming a problem for airlines, but also trolleys, bags and backpacks that are larger than allowed. They cost a lot of time when boarding because they are harder to stow in the hand luggage compartments and take up space for other travelers’ hand luggage.
Austrian Airlines also has these problems. A spokeswoman for Lufthansa’s Austrian subsidiary told Radio Vienna that “we have discovered that there has been an increase in non-compliance with our hand luggage regulations in the recent past.” In December and January we saw “that there were flight delays due to the length of time it took to stow hand luggage”.
At Austrian, hand luggage may be a maximum of 55 x 40 x 23 centimeters and weigh 8 kilograms. One piece of hand luggage is allowed in Economy and Premium Economy Class, and usually two pieces in Business Class. “You can check these requirements at the airport using our hand luggage frames,” the airline told passengers.
Based on the experiences from December and January, these exact checks are now taking place much more frequently, not only voluntarily, but on the instructions of Austrian staff. The spokeswoman explained that compliance with hand luggage rules has been checked more frequently since March. In this way, “we ensure that all processes function smoothly. And our planes can take off smoothly.”
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The original for this article “Ösi-Airline annoyed by annoying passenger habits: “Costs us a lot of time”” comes from aeroTelegraph.