Gatwick relaxes hand baggage rules
Gatwick airport is moving towards allowing passengers to carry more than one item of hand luggage.
From today passengers on flights connecting through the North Terminal at Gatwick will be able to carry more than one item of cabin baggage, as long as their airline allows it.
Passengers on flights connecting through the South Terminal have been able to travel with more than one piece of hand luggage since 7 January. But the one item of hand baggage only rule still applies at Gatwick on all other flights.
Since early January when the Department for Transport published a list of the 22 UK airports it has approved to allow more than one item of cabin baggage, Gatwick has been saying that it will meet the required airport security standards “soon”.
In its latest statement Gatwick airport says: “This rule will be relaxed in the near future when the ongoing construction project to upgrade and expand the security facilities at the airport is completed”.
Gatwick has promised that another seven security lanes will be open at the airport by Easter, following the six that were introduced last July. This will bring the total of security lanes at Gatwick to 35, with 21 at the South Terminal and 14 at the North Terminal.
The DfT has set a deadline of 31 May by when all UK airports should have the security arrangements in place to be able to cope with more than one piece of hand luggage.
A number of other major UK airports besides Gatwick have still not relaxed the one item rule, including Luton airport, East Midlands airport and Liverpool airport.
Among the major airports where more than one item of hand baggage is allowed are Heathrow, Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. However, different airlines have different rules so the advice is still to check with your airline before you fly.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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