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Free · no signup · all 14 airline limits verified July 2026
Passengers on the India–Gulf corridor pack against 14 different cabin baggage rules. The rules split 4 ways: the standard Indian size, what 7 kg really means, the Gulf carriers' smaller frames, and what the gate does with a bag that's 2 cm over. The numbers below are the same verified dataset that powers the SafarCheck bag checker above, last checked 7 July 2026.
India's aviation security rules run a one-bag policy: one cabin bag in the overhead bin, plus one personal item under the seat in front of you. On IndiGo the personal item can weigh up to 3 kg on top of the 7 kg cabin bag; the fare-by-fare detail is on the IndiGo baggage allowance page.
| Airline | Cabin bag size | Weight | Personal item |
|---|---|---|---|
| IndiGo | 55 × 35 × 25 cm | 7 kg | Yes, up to 3 kg (under seat) |
| Air India | 55 × 40 × 20 cm | 7 kg | Yes (handbag/laptop bag) |
| Air India Express | 55 × 35 × 25 cm | 7 kg | Yes (small bag) |
| SpiceJet | 55 × 35 × 25 cm | 7 kg | Yes, but counts inside the 7 kg |
| Akasa Air | 55 × 35 × 25 cm | 7 kg | Yes, up to 3 kg |
Checked 7 July 2026 against official airline pages. The allowance printed on your ticket is final.
SpiceJet uses the same 55 × 35 × 25 frame with one expensive difference: the personal item counts inside the 7 kg rather than on top of it. Weigh the laptop bag too if you fly SpiceJet.
These 5 airlines carry most of India's traffic, but fare families and aircraft types shift the finer rules; SpiceJet's smaller Q400 turboprops, for example, take a smaller bag than its Boeings. The airline baggage allowance pages for all 14 carriers cover checked baggage, fees and route quirks. This page stays on cabin size and weight.
The gate-by-gate detail, including which airlines sell extra cabin weight and how staff apply the limit in practice, is in the 7kg cabin bag rules guide.
The personal item, also called the underseat bag, is a handbag, laptop bag or small backpack that fits under the seat in front of you. It travels separately from the overhead cabin bag.
The working model is 2 bags: one overhead, one underseat. IndiGo makes it concrete: 55 × 35 × 25 cm and 7 kg in the bin, plus up to 3 kg under the seat.
Gulf carriers vary. Emirates economy allows one cabin bag only, with the laptop packed inside it; Qatar Airways allows a small personal item but publishes no dimensions for it. Fare class changes the rule on 7 of the 9 Gulf carriers, and the per-airline pages in the table below carry that detail.
| Centimetres | Inches | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| 55 × 35 × 25 cm | 21.7 × 13.8 × 9.8 in | IndiGo, Air India Express, SpiceJet, Akasa Air |
| 55 × 40 × 20 cm | 21.7 × 15.7 × 7.9 in | Air India |
| 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 22.0 × 14.2 × 9.1 in | Etihad, flynas |
| 56 × 35.5 × 23 cm | 22 × 14 × 9 in (US retail standard) | 1 cm over the Indian 55 cm limit |
No hand conversion needed for your own bag: flip the checker above to inches and type the label size straight in. It converts and tests all 14 airlines at once.
Every airline builds its own sizer frame, so "international size" has 14 answers on this corridor. The table holds all of them; each airline links to its full allowance page.
| Airline | Size (cm) | Size (inches) | Weight | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IndiGo | 55 × 35 × 25 | 21.7 × 13.8 × 9.8 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Air India baggage allowance | 55 × 40 × 20 | 21.7 × 15.7 × 7.9 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Air India Express baggage allowance | 55 × 35 × 25 | 21.7 × 13.8 × 9.8 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| SpiceJet baggage allowance | 55 × 35 × 25 | 21.7 × 13.8 × 9.8 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Akasa Air baggage allowance | 55 × 35 × 25 | 21.7 × 13.8 × 9.8 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Emirates baggage allowance | 55 × 38 × 22 | 21.7 × 15.0 × 8.7 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Etihad baggage allowance | 56 × 36 × 23 | 22.0 × 14.2 × 9.1 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Qatar Airways baggage allowance | 50 × 37 × 25 | 19.7 × 14.6 × 9.8 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Saudia baggage allowance | 56 × 45 × 25 | 22.0 × 17.7 × 9.8 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| flynas baggage allowance | 56 × 36 × 23 | 22.0 × 14.2 × 9.1 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| flydubai baggage allowance | 55 × 38 × 20 | 21.7 × 15.0 × 7.9 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Oman Air baggage allowance | 51 × 41 × 23 | 20.1 × 16.1 × 9.1 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Kuwait Airways baggage allowance | 56 × 46 × 25 | 22.0 × 18.1 × 9.8 | 7 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Gulf Air baggage allowance | 45 × 40 × 30 | 17.7 × 15.7 × 11.8 | 6 kg | 7 Jul 2026 |
IndiGo's page is linked in the section on standard Indian sizes above. Dimensions include wheels and handles on every airline.
The published fee tables back this up. SafarCheck's 7 July 2026 verification pass found SpiceJet listing a ₹750 per kg charge for overweight hand baggage, a fee that exists because staff put cabin bags on scales. Gulf carriers rely more on the metal sizer frame at the boarding gate, where size gets tested before weight.
The cost gap is the lesson. Excess checked baggage runs ₹600–700 per kg at Indian airport counters (IndiGo ₹600, SpiceJet and Akasa Air ₹700) against ₹350–450 per kg prebooked online on IndiGo, as of the July 2026 check. The excess baggage calculator does that arithmetic for every airline, and IndiGo extra baggage charges per kg has the slab-level detail for the airline most Indians fly.
So the drill takes 2 minutes: weigh your packed bag on a bathroom scale, then put the number in the checker above. If you're over, buy the kilos online before you reach the airport. The counter rate never loses.
The checker compares your numbers to published limits; the gate compares your bag to a metal frame. Those are different tests. A soft-sided bag 1–2 cm over usually compresses into the sizer. A hard shell doesn't, and a hard shell that measures over is over.
The trap airline is Gulf Air. Its 45 × 40 × 30 cm frame at 6 kg is the smallest on the corridor, so a 55 cm bag that fits IndiGo exactly is 10 cm over Gulf Air's frame. No amount of squeezing covers that.
Why trust a checker the gate can overrule? Because the checker uses the same published frame dimensions the sizer is built to. The 1–2 cm gray zone is human discretion, and knowing you're inside it changes how you pack: expander zip closed, soft bag left squeezable. Measure the packed bag, wheels and all, and run the exact numbers through the checker.
Manufacturers quote the shell size without wheels; airlines measure everything. Packed soft bags also bulge 1–2 cm past their empty measurements, so measure after packing. That 2–3 cm gap is why the "but the label says 55 cm" argument loses at the gate.
Already know your bag model? Look it up in the bag size checker, which pairs this measuring method with a full airline-by-airline size test.
Gulf Air gives 6 kg, 1 kg less than IndiGo. Saudia restricts economy passengers to a single cabin bag. Emirates economy also allows one bag only, laptop packed inside it.
The generosity, where it exists, sits in premium cabins: business and first fares add second pieces and higher weight caps. Those numbers vary by airline and fare family, and the per-airline pages in the table above carry them.
If 7 kg won't cover the trip, you have 2 working options: move weight into the personal item where the airline allows one, or prebook checked kilos online at the cheaper rates covered earlier.
3 measurable criteria settle it. Frame volume: Gulf Air's 45 × 40 × 30 box is the smallest total space. Weight cap: Gulf Air's 6 kg stands alone; the other 13 allow 7 kg. Dimensional outlier: Qatar Airways' 50 cm length limit fails the standard 55 cm Indian bag on paper before weight even comes up.
The practical takeaway: a 55 × 35 × 25 bag that passes IndiGo fails both Gulf Air and Qatar Airways. If your itinerary mixes carriers, pack for the strictest sector, and check each airline before a Gulf sector instead of assuming the outbound rule holds on the way home.
Domestic checked allowance on Indian carriers is 15 kg on standard fares. International allowances shift with route and fare: Gulf routes commonly run 20–30 kg, the lowest fare bundles on flydubai, flynas and Air India Express include no checked bag at all, and most airlines switch to the piece concept on US and Canada routes.
Those checked-baggage ladders belong to the per-airline pages linked in the table above; every carrier's fare families slice them differently, and a 4-line summary here would mislead.
Students feel this gap hardest: a semester's luggage against a fare-dependent checked allowance, plus airline student schemes on top. The student section below routes to those.
The airline-side standard for Zamzam water is one sealed 5-litre container, carried as checked baggage, never in the cabin. Where it flies free, where it counts inside your allowance, and which airports release it differ by carrier.
The rules also move. Since May 2026, flynas accepts Zamzam from Jeddah, Madinah and Taif only with Umrah proof in the Nusuk app, reversing its earlier Jeddah ban. Carry the proof; some counters still apply the old rule.
The Umrah baggage guides hub holds 16 guides for the whole trip. Start with Zamzam water airline rules, the 12-airline comparison, then your own carrier: Zamzam water on Saudia (free from Jeddah and Madinah, but counted inside your checked kilos) and Zamzam water on IndiGo flights (5 litres inside the checked allowance, Jeddah departures only) cover the 2 most common bookings.
2 more guides answer the questions pilgrims ask at the gate: Ihram in cabin baggage rules for the cloth, belt and prayer items, and the Jeddah airport baggage guide for the airport side, from Zamzam collection to the sizer at boarding.
12 of the 14 corridor airlines give extra checked baggage on a valid student ID or student visa. The limits, eligible routes and proof requirements differ per airline, and 2 of the 14 (flydubai and flynas) publish no student scheme at all.
The student baggage allowance comparison lines up all 14 side by side. For the airlines students ask about most, IndiGo student baggage allowance, Emirates student baggage allowance and Qatar Airways student baggage allowance cover the booking steps and the documents check-in staff ask to see.
No kilo figures here on purpose: student offers change mid-year, and each page above carries the current terms with its own verification date.
The checker at the top answers "will it fit". These calculators answer the follow-up: what the extra kilos cost, per airline and per route, airport rate against prebooked rate.
Per-airline fee calculators, airport rate against prebooked rate:
IndiGo's calculator is linked in the weighing section above. All 14 read the same verified dataset as this page.
All 14 airline limits on this page were re-checked against official airline pages on 7 July 2026. That was a full pass: cabin dimensions, weights, personal item rules and excess rates, airline by airline, each with its source recorded.
Every rule change gets a dated log entry. When flynas reversed its Jeddah Zamzam ban in May 2026, the dataset was updated once and every table, tool and page on the site picked it up together, because they all read one file.
The method is documented in how we verify data, and the baggage rule changes log records every update with its date and source. Spot something an airline changed before we did? Report it on the contact page; corrections get checked, shipped and logged like everything else.
55 × 35 × 25 cm and 7 kg: one bag, plus a personal item up to 3 kg that fits under the seat. The size includes wheels and handles.
The full weight of the bag including the bag itself. An empty trolley weighs 2.5–3.5 kg, so pack light or use a soft bag to keep real capacity.
Usually no: it rides as your personal item under the seat, separate from the main cabin bag (IndiGo allows up to 3 kg). SpiceJet is the exception: it counts the laptop bag inside the 7 kg cabin total. Check your airline's rule.
21.7 × 13.8 × 9.8 inches. Bags sold as "21.5 inch cabin size" fit Indian carriers; "22 × 14 × 9" US-standard bags are 1 cm over on height.
Not on standard economy fares of Indian and Gulf low-cost carriers. The limit is 7 kg (6 kg on Gulf Air). Some airlines sell extra cabin weight or offer it on premium fares; otherwise the extra kilos belong in checked baggage, prebooked online.
Yes, increasingly: at check-in counters in India and with sizer frames at Gulf boarding gates, especially on full flights. Assume yes and pack inside the limit.
Qatar Airways' 50 cm length limit and Gulf Air's 45 cm frame at just 6 kg are the tightest on the corridor. flydubai's slim 20 cm depth catches overstuffed soft bags.
It usually passes unnoticed, but on a full flight a sizer-frame check can send it to the hold with a gate fee. If your bag is borderline, don't fill it rigid; a slightly soft bag squeezes into the frame; a hard shell doesn't.
Borderline bag? Run your bag through the checker above with the packed, wheels-included measurements.