EasyJet Keeping One-Bag Limit On Hand Luggage

easyJet has urged the CAA to reject a request by airport group BAA to increase baggage handling charges following the government’s decision to lift the restriction of one piece of hand luggage at 22 UK airports on January 7th 2008.

easyJet itself has announced that it will be keeping the one-bag limit on hand luggage in place on its own aircraft, citing possible customer confusion as the reason not to change its policy. There will still be 40 commercial airports with the one bag rule still in place, including Belfast, Bristol, East Midlands, Liverpool and Luton. As a result of this, some BAA airports including Gatwick have applied to the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for a price increase.

easyJet’s Chief Executive Andy Harrison stated that passengers could be assured that by following this simple policy, they can continue with their journey as normal:

“There is massive scope for customer confusion in an environment where UK airports are adopting different policies. The only way to maintain a simple and standard policy is to maintain our one bag policy...Also some of the major BAA airports are using the relaxation of the one bag rule as a pretext to further increase passenger charges. They increased charges when the restriction was introduced and now they want to increase charges again to remove it! easyJet will continue to resist such attempts and calls on the CAA for its full support”.

easyJet’s policy allows each UK departing passenger to carry one piece of hand baggage (dimensions up to 55x40x20cm with an unlimited weight allowance), on all easyJet flights.