EU hand luggage regulations (air travel)

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Well, I am going home soon on vacation, so I needed to check out this:

Regulations on hand luggage on airplanes in the EU:

It seems the EU regulation stipulates the following (I only found info about the emerging regulation as of Nov 2006, before it was passed):

Max. length: 56cm

Max. width: 25cm

Max. height: 45 cm

This is not much different than the regulation all major airlines were following in the past; some have had a rule of thump which went: the sum of the measures above must not exceed 115. The regulation above allows a larger sum.

Airlines usually change these measures somewhat, for instance China Airlines of Taiwan has:

Max. length: 56cm

Max. width: 23 cm (!)

Max. height: 36cm (!)

And (length + width + height) may not exceed 115 cm !

Max. weight is 7kg.

Valid for all classes, but Business is allowed to bring an additional clothing bag, First Class is allowed to bring two hand luggage.

With China Airlines and also other airlines, it is still possible to bring for free:

1 coat

1 Notebook or 1 duty free pack

1 hand bag or purse

A child clothes bag or whatever that was is allowed also, check with your airline.

LIQUIDS: One website stated this regulation would only be related for liquids and not for creams, but most websites agree it’s for everything, including gels, jellies and creams (also medicine!), so let’s assume that.

Liquids, gels, creams etc. must be packed in a transparent plastic bag (called Zipper) which is re-sealable. It may have a max. capacity of 1 liter. Each liquid or cream (or…) package must be properly closed and have a max. capacity of 100ml (best if stated on the package). Has to be shown at the security check separately.

MEDICINE: Medicine which is needed for the flight duration is excluded, but has to be shown separately to security check.

DUTY free bag: There is a lot of chaos about this regulation right now, basically it’s easy: When your airplane STARTS from a EU airport, no matter if overstop or originating there, liquids from the duty free shop (no matter if wine or beer or whatever) have to be in a sealed bag; it will be sealed by the duty free shop. Do not open it.

If you are coming from out of the EU and are landing in the EU, you can bring and old-style (open) duty free bag (they are still like this in most countries) INTO the EU. But if you transfer to another plane within the EU, you have to throw you alcohol away.

So buying duty free liquids in Dubai and bringing them on a direct flight to Frankfurt, Germany is allowed. Transfer in Germany to a plane to Berlin or Paris will require throwing the alcohol away!

I can not guarantee this of course, maybe tomorrow they will even stop people bringing an unsealed duty free-bag even into the EU. Better to make sure with your airline before you buy.