Many news sites are today carrying headline stories about the new IATA guidelines for carry on luggage, but what are the real implications of the bid by the trade body to create a standardised approach?

While the US FAA has had a standardised ‘maximum’ size of carry on baggage for a while now, the difference in size between them and the non-USA airline carriers has only really been noticeable for travellers using low cost airlines, or those who have fallen foul of extra zealous airline crew on a long haul journey.

With the dominance of low cost carriers on short haul flights already having changed travel habits so that many passengers travel without checked bags out of choice, and with many scheduled airlines now starting to edge towards either demanding a certain level of frequent flyer status or charging for checked baggage, the real implications of the new IATA guidelines could revolve simply around travellers being forced to bear the brunt of higher costs to pay to check in bags.

Despite this, the reality is that Airbus (one of the two major aircraft manufacturers) has already started to amend plane designs in order to take into account new ideas to allow for more carry on baggage. Airlines themselves are also likely to make sure that they are not giving their competitors an edge by being over zealous and pushing customers to look elsewhere to avoid additional costs.

With this in mind, while it is certainly wise to keep an eye on the size of your bag to make sure that it is not going to fall foul of your next airline carrier’s rules, I wouldn’t be rushing off to buy one of the soon to be released ‘IATA sized’ bags.