Relaxed luggage law may bring confusion

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British government relaxed rules for carry-on luggage at most UK airports on Monday, but confusion is expected as it does not apply to every destination and airlines are still able to set their own rules.

Air passengers in Britain had been restricted to a single item of hand luggage since August 2006, when security authorities thwarted a plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners.

The restriction affected even those passengers making connections in Britain, forcing them to disembark if they arrived with more than one item and go through immigration again.

After protests from passengers and airlines, Britain's Department for Transport announced it would relax the rules.

As of Monday, passengers at 22 British airports -- including Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester and Glasgow -- can take two items of baggage on board with them.

But the new rules do not apply to more than 40 other major UK airports, including Gatwick -- and airlines may still apply their own policies, regardless of which airport they use.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport rejected reported criticism that the new rules are too confusing.

"The onus is on the industry to inform passengers, and for passengers to keep in touch with the airline and the airport," a department spokesman said.

The spokesman said not every airport requested permission to allow two items of hand luggage. Often, he said, airports did not apply because they lacked the capacity -- with staff, space, or security measures -- to allow more than one carry-on bag.

"Until they have got to that level, it's not even worth their while applying," the spokesman said.

Among the airlines retaining the one-bag rule was budget carrier easyJet, which said its policy would minimize confusion for passengers. In the London area, easyJet operates from Stansted, which now permits two carry-on bags, and Gatwick and Luton, which still allow just one.

"There is a massive scope for customer confusion in an environment where UK airports are adopting different policies," an easyJet statement said. "The only way to maintain a simple and standard policy is to maintain our one-bag policy." E-mail to a friend

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