India Strictly Rules in New Cabin Baggage Policy for Flyers: Know How It Affects Your Travel

In 2024 alone, a whopping 376 million passengers were recorded across the 135 operational airports in India, including for both domestic and international travel. Marking a new record, India’s domestic air passenger traffic crossed 5 lakhs for the first time in a single day; precisely 5,05,412 passengers on November 17, 2024. Mumbai International Airport alone handled 27,200 flights and nearly 48 lakh (4.77 million) passenger footfalls in November this year.

The meteoric rise in numbers of civil aviation traffic has increased the workload on the airport security personnel when it comes to screening passengers and their cabin bags. Consequently, the quality and safety of air travel has become a matter of concern these days, especially in view of insufficient staffing for security checking at Indian airports. Major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru will collectively require more than 5000 additional security personnel in 2025.

The more passengers, the more security lines – which, to some extent, affects the on-time performance (OTP) of airlines at international airports in India. The government of India has curbed hand baggage allowance for all flyers given the increasing passenger numbers and the current resource challenges. With air traffic set to hit new records as the airline network and fleet are likely to expand in 2025, the one-hand-bag policy is being enforced now.

Precisely, you can carry only one cabin bag, one laptop bag, or one handbag on board while traveling by air within and out of India. A second carry-on bag must be checked in. This amendment to the hand baggage policy was made two years ago, but it was not enforced. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which primarily deal with the Indian airport security, have now called on airlines to enforce it strictly with immediate effect.

Is the new one-cabin-bag policy for only domestic passengers?

Reportedly, this equally applies to international travelers flying out of India. Many travelers scheduled to take international flights from India to USA, the UK, the UAE, Singapore and other overseas destinations have a domestic connection to major airports in their itineraries. So, the one-hand-bag policy applies to the very beginning of their journey from the first departure airport.

The revised hand baggage rules come with guidelines and exemptions:

Passengers booking economy flight tickets or premium economy seats cannot carry more than more than 7kg of handbag, according to the stricter rules imposed by the government. The revised hand baggage allowance for first-class and business class flights is up to 10kg. cabin bags must conform to the dimensions: 55cm in height (21.6-inch), 40cm in length (15.7-inch), and 20cm in width (7.8-inch).

Only those who booked their domestic or international flight tickets on or before May 4, 2024 are exempted from India’s new one cabin baggage rule for airlines. You can carry cabin baggage up to 8 kg in economy, 10 kg in premium economy, and 12 kg in business/first class.