Carry on: Sick of passengers with oversized cabin luggage? Help is on the way

The international airline organisation, Iata, wants to give greater assurances that no passenger with a compliant carry-on bag will miss out on storing it in overhead lockers even when a plane is full. It has issued guidelines for a standard size carry-on bags in an effort to get rules that apply to all airlines.

The Cabin OK initiative has an optimum size of 55x35x20cm (21.5x13.5x7.5in) and has been calculated to make the best use of storage space in an aircraft with 120 more seats. Every traveller knows if they board a plane later than most others they will find the overhead space is already taken by those with over-sized bags or, in too many cases, those who have managed to smuggle on an extra bag as well.

“A number of major international airlines have signalled their interest to join the initiative,” Iata spokesman Albert Tjoeng says. “They will soon be introducing operational guidelines to give Cabin OK bags priority to stay on board the aircraft when all carry-on bags cannot be accommodated in the cabin.”

Airlines will continue to set a maximum size, which is typically bigger than the Cabin OK guideline but passengers will be able to travel with a greater assurance that their approved bag will be acceptable across the different airline requirements. This will be achieved with a Cabin OK logoed bag having priority (determined individually by each airline) for staying in the cabin should capacity be exceeded and some baggage needing to be moved to the hold.

Nauru Airlines launches Micronesia Island Hopper 
A new Micronesia Island Hopper service is now available each Friday on the Nauru-Tarawa-Majuro-Kosrae-Pohnpei route in the northern Pacific, using Boeing 737-300 aircraft. This also marks the return of Nauru Airlines to Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia since 1980s, when Air Nauru operated a weekly nonstop service.

This new service will end United’s monopoly on this route in recent years. In particular, overall air service to and from Kosrae will receive a third weekly flight (United operates twice-weekly each on Kosrae-Pohnpei and Kosrae-Kwajalein sectors), as well as a nonstop link to Majuro. Additionally, the service will allow same day connection to/from Brisbane and Nadi via Nauru.

The new weekly service will also replace existing nonstop Nauru-Majuro service while Majuro-Tarawa sector sees operational day changes changes.

Etihad rolls back Caucasus flights
Etihad is pulling back from its operations to the Caucasus region, with the cancellation of services from Abu Dhabi to Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi. The Yerevan service, which operates four times a week, will cease from Abu Dhabi on August 31 and on September 1 from Yerevan. In addition, the previously planned launch of a four-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Baku service from October 1 and three-times-weekly Abu Dhabi-Tbilisi flights from October 2 are also cancelled. Meanwhile, Etihad will introduce a daily Boeing 787-9 service on the Abu Dhabi-Zurich route from July 6, replacing the existing Airbus A330-300 operation. 

Other route news
LAN Airlines will deploy a Boeing 787-9 on its weekly Santiago de Chile-Easter Island-Papeete route from January 25, 2016, replacing a 787-8 operation that starts on September 25. Further, the airline’s Easter Island service will gradually move to a 787-9 only operation from March 28, 2016. Air Canada will use a Boeing 787-8 on its Calgary-London Heathrow route from January 28 until March 26, 2016, replacing a Boeing 767. In addition, Air Canada plans to operate Boeing 787-9 aircraft on Toronto-London Heathrow and Toronto-Shanghai Pu Dong in the first half of 2016, operating a weekly flight from March 1-April 30. American Airlines is launching Boeing 787-8 operations on its Dallas/Fort Worth-London Heathrow route from September 18 on a limited-time basis, which sees the Dreamliner aircraft operating one daily flight until October 4.