Looks like things may be returning to near normal soon:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5343018.stm

From the article:

"The limits on hand luggage - brought in last month - have been criticised for causing delays to passengers, and for costing airlines and airports."

There was a recent report that indicated airlines were noticing a <b>decrease</b> in the amount of boarding time required.

I am sure those &quot;duty free&quot; places will be breathing a sigh of relief.

&lt; I am sure those &quot;duty free&quot; places will be breathing a sigh of relief. &gt;

The BAA (who run most of the airports in the UK) will be breathing a sigh of relief as they were in danger of losing a significant number of transit passengers to countries with &quot;normal&quot; rules.

Also the LCC's are happy because it means they can get their costs for loading luggage back to normal

LCC's?????????

Low cost carriers? Are you saying that with these &quot;new&quot; (about to be relaxed) rules these LCC's relaxed their usual 20 Kilo checked baggage rule?

I prefer to call them Low CostS Carriers.

Some did relax their rules, others did for a while (hello Pikeyair) then charged everybody regardless.

But the main problem was that the additional time in getting passengers &amp; luggage onto/off planes was causing problems with their timetables which allowed as little as 30 minutes between flights.

LCCs hate checked baggage because the more of it there is, the higher their chances of delay. And, of course, the more to load, the more baggage handlers to pay.

The no-cabin bag rules in Britain (the hub of Europe's LCC system) probably threw more extra cost onto the LCCs than onto the conventional carriers. Which is why Ryanair's O'Leary has been so hysterical about the whole thing.

The more delay in their system, the tougher it gets to keep to their hyper-low turnround times and high levels of equipment utilisation.

The fact that they charge for checked bags is secondary: they make more by keeping their planes in the air.

Bummer. I've made a couple of flights since the tightened carry-on rules went into effect and getting on and off the planes was soooooo much faster and easier.

Alan and Flanner..thanks for the explanation...makes sense to me. I also didn't know that the Ryanair guy had made such a fuss.

O'Leary makes a fuss about everything - if there's money to be made

I think the rules have caused delays to passengers, also. The boarding time itself may have decreased (which I've read, also) because people don't have as many carryons, but the total time a person spends at the airport in security, etc., has increased.

This morning's press reports are that:
- Britain's new carry-on rules will still be different from (presumably therefore stricter than)the rest of Europe
- Carry on baggage search levels will NOT at present be reduced. So, with the amount of cabin baggage increasing, security will take longer, and MORE time will need to be allowed
- And search levels will be maintained as long as O'Leary continues his endless hysterical ranting. The official, public, argument is that every time he whinges he reveals, or tries to get the government to reveal, operational data which we don't want the psychopaths to know.
The unofficial argument, I suspect, is that the man is a prat and the sooner he's put firmly in place, the better for all of us.

For once, the men in Whitehall are absolutely right.