Free hand luggage is coming to European flights in 2027, but every airline still sets its own rules this summer

A cabin bag is one of the fees that pushes up the price of a cheap-looking flight, and for a family you pay it per person, each way. In June 2026 the EU agreed to end that, giving every passenger two bags at no extra cost as part of the biggest overhaul of air passenger rights in more than two decades. The rule won’t apply until 2027, so for a trip this summer each airline’s own allowance and gate charges still stand.

Two free bags, built into the fare

The deal sets two sizes. The first is a small personal item up to 40 by 30 by 15cm, the sort of handbag, small rucksack or laptop bag that fits under the seat in front. The second is a larger cabin bag for the overhead locker, up to 100cm added across its three sides and up to 7kg. Airlines will have to build the cost of both into the headline fare shown at the start of booking, which is meant to stop the low base price that climbs every time you add a bag.

The larger bag is bundled into the standard fare rather than banned as a charge in every case, so an airline can still offer a cheaper fare to a passenger who agrees to travel without it. How big that discount would be hasn’t been set out, so it’s too early to say what opting out might be worth.

The bundled status of that larger bag is also the part that isn’t fully settled. Most of the reporting, and the framing used by the European Commission and Parliament, presents it as two free bags with a discount for anyone who skips the larger one. Two member states, Spain and Latvia, voted against the final text because they wanted the larger cabin bag guaranteed as an outright free right rather than bundled with an opt-out. Spain has spent years arguing that a cabin bag should never carry a surcharge, so its objection is a real signal that the fine legal detail could still be read more than one way once the text is published.

The timeline, and why it’s 2027 not now

The agreement reached on 15 June 2026 was a provisional political deal, not the finished law. The European Parliament formally confirmed it in a plenary vote on 7 July, by 646 votes to 12 with 3 abstentions, and the Council of the EU gave its final clearance on 13 July. The text still has to be signed and published in the EU’s Official Journal, which hadn’t happened by mid-July.

After publication the regulation takes legal effect 20 days later, a formality, but airlines then get a transition period of about 12 months before the substantive rules actually apply to them. Because the clock only starts at publication, the precise date can’t be pinned down yet. Reporting rounds it to 2027, with some outlets pointing to the second half of that year. For now it changes nothing for a trip booked this year.

A decade of court cases and fines

The low-cost model was built on unbundling. Ryanair introduced checked-baggage fees in 2006, then over the years added charges for priority boarding, check-in, seat selection and eventually hand luggage, so the advertised fare covered less and less. Baggage and other add-ons now make up a large slice of some low-cost carriers’ total revenue, which is why the free-bag rule is one they’ve fought hard.

The legal turning point came in 2014. The Court of Justice of the EU ruled, in a case involving the Spanish carrier Vueling, that hand baggage is an essential part of carrying a passenger and can’t be subject to an extra charge, provided it meets reasonable limits on weight and size. Nearly every campaign and enforcement action since has rested on that ruling.

Spain acted on that ruling in November 2024, when its consumer-rights ministry fined five low-cost airlines a combined figure of around €179 million for practices it called abusive, the largest single element being hand-luggage surcharges, alongside charges such as printing a boarding pass and fees to seat a child next to a parent. Ryanair drew by far the biggest penalty. All five airlines said the fines were wrong and lodged appeals, which are still working through the Spanish courts.

Then it nearly went the other way. Around late 2025 the European Commission itself opened a case against Spain, arguing the Spanish authorities had overstepped. On the Commission’s reading at the time, only a small under-seat bag was guaranteed free, and a larger overhead bag counted as an extra service an airline could legitimately charge for. So in the same period that Spain was fining airlines for charging, Brussels was leaning toward allowing it. What tipped the balance was the European Parliament, which in January 2026 backed the two-bag position by 632 votes to 15, and carried it into the June deal.

The airlines have been vocal against it throughout. Ryanair’s chief executive called the reform “bureaucratic bunkum” and put a figure of roughly €8, about £7, on the cost it would add to every ticket, arguing that many passengers don’t want a second bag. easyJet’s chief executive was similarly blunt and warned that fares would rise to cover it. Those are the airlines’ own claims from operators actively opposing the rule, not neutral estimates, so treat them as one side of the argument.

This summer, every airline still sets its own rules

Until the new law applies, each carrier’s current allowance is what counts, and they differ a lot. The pattern splits roughly in two. The traditional and package carriers tend to include a full cabin bag already, while the ultra-low-cost airlines give you only a small under-seat bag for free and charge for anything larger. These allowances change often, so check your specific ticket when you book. Here’s where the main airlines a UK family flies stood in summer 2026:

• Ryanair. One free small bag (40 by 30 by 20cm) under the seat. A larger cabin bag isn’t free; it comes only with the paid “Priority & 2 Cabin Bags” add-on.
• easyJet. One free small bag (45 by 36 by 20cm) under the seat. A larger cabin bag is free only on its pricier fares or for members, otherwise it’s a paid extra.
• Jet2. A free personal item plus a free larger cabin bag (up to 10kg) as standard, so both are already included.
• TUI. A free cabin bag (up to 10kg) and a free personal item for anyone aged 2 and over. Infants under 2 get no hand-luggage allowance of their own.
• British Airways. A full cabin bag plus a small personal item included as standard, with no separate charge for the larger bag the way the budget carriers apply.
• Wizz Air. The tightest of the group, with only a small personal item (40 by 30 by 20cm) free and a wheeled cabin bag reserved for paid priority. Wizz shrank its free size in late 2025, so a bag that passed before may no longer fit.
• Lufthansa. A free personal item on every fare, and a full cabin bag on standard Economy and above, but its cheapest new “Economy Basic” fare on European routes drops the cabin bag down to the personal item alone.

The charge you most want to avoid is the one at the gate. Turn up at Ryanair with a bag that doesn’t fit the sizer and hasn’t been paid for, and it’ll be checked into the hold for around £46 to £60 (checked summer 2026), more again if it’s oversized as well as unpaid. easyJet handles an over-limit gate bag the same way, putting it in the hold and charging for it. Gate staff are reported to be using stricter physical and digital sizers this year, with less willingness to wave through a soft bag squeezed to fit, so a borderline bag is a real risk rather than a safe bet.

What this means for a family

The cost of cabin bags falls per person, per direction, which is what makes it add up for a family. A family of four flying Ryanair or easyJet and wanting a proper cabin bag each, rather than everyone squeezing into small under-seat bags, is paying for up to four add-ons each way, so eight across a return. On a cheap route those charges can rival the fares themselves, and they land whichever of the budget airlines you pick.

The cheapest way to avoid a gate fee this year is to measure each bag against the airline’s own sizer before you travel, rather than assuming last year’s bag still passes. Two carriers changed their exact dimensions within the past year, Ryanair widening its personal-item allowance in August 2025 and Wizz Air shrinking its in November 2025, so a bag that fitted before might fail now. A soft-sided bag that gives a little has the best chance at a sizer close to the limit.

Pushchairs, car seats and travel cots don’t count against your hand luggage, which parents often miss. Ryanair and easyJet both let you check up to two items of baby equipment free per child, so a buggy plus a car seat or a travel cot, dropped at the gate and returned at the aircraft steps or baggage reclaim depending on the airline. That allowance is separate from the cabin-bag rules and unaffected by any of this.

Babies and young children have their own, different allowances, which is a common trap. A lap infant with no seat of their own generally gets no cabin bag beyond a small changing bag, so everything else the baby needs has to fit in an adult’s allowance, and TUI states plainly that under-2s get no hand-luggage allowance at all. Once a child has their own paid seat, from around age 2, they get the same cabin allowance as an adult, which is another bag to pack, measure and potentially pay for. A checked suitcase for the week’s clothes is a separate charge again, and none of the cabin-bag changes touch it.

The rules may not cover your outbound flight from the UK, and that part isn’t yet resolved. Because this is EU law, its normal scope covers any flight leaving an EU airport, but a flight leaving a non-EU airport such as a UK one is only covered if an EU-based airline operates it. On that reading, your outbound leg from the UK on a British carrier could fall outside the new rules while the return from Europe would be covered. Running two different bag policies by direction would be awkward, so airlines may simply apply the new standard both ways, and the UK government is reported to be considering matching the rules in UK law. None of that has been confirmed, so it’s worth watching rather than counting on for now.

The same reform also stops airlines charging extra to seat a young child next to an accompanying adult, which some budget carriers currently treat as a paid seat selection.

When the rules do apply in 2027, a family should no longer need to buy the larger cabin bag as a paid extra on the airlines that charge for it today, since it’ll be built into the standard fare, the way it already is on Jet2, TUI and British Airways. On the current charges that could save a family with several bags a fair amount on a return trip. It’s worth holding that lightly, though, because base fares are widely expected to rise to recover some of the lost fee income, so how much a family actually keeps won’t be clear until the airlines reprice. For this summer nothing has changed, so check what your ticket includes and measure your bag before you go.

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