Gatwick baggage allowance: the airline-by-airline numbers

Two numbers belong to the airport and everything else belongs to the airline. Gatwick's own frame is a cabin-bag maximum of 56 x 45 x 25cm, one piece plus whatever handbag rule your airline applies, and a hard ceiling of 32kg on any single bag, hold or cabin, because heavier items cannot be safely handled. Within that frame, the airline and the specific fare you bought decide what travels free, what costs extra and what gets measured at the gate.

That is why the only allowance that matters is the one on your booking confirmation. Fare names recycle across airlines (Basic, Light, FLEXI, Priority) but the numbers behind them differ, and they shift season to season. The figures below are the current published rules for Gatwick's biggest carriers, gathered in one place so you can compare; treat them as the map, and your booking as the territory. For any airline not listed, start from the Gatwick airlines directory and follow through to the carrier's own baggage page.

The free cabin bag is where Gatwick's airlines differ most, and where the 2025 EU minimum-size agreement quietly improved things: each of the big Gatwick carriers now takes at least a 40cm x 30cm x 20cm bag at no charge. The current rules for the big six:

• easyJet includes a small cabin bag of 45cm x 36cm x 20cm, under the seat, up to 15kg. The large 56cm x 45cm x 25cm overhead bag is paid, or free with FLEXI fares and easyJet Plus membership.
• British Airways includes a 56cm x 45cm x 25cm cabin bag plus a 40cm x 30cm x 15cm personal item on every fare. Each can weigh up to 23kg, provided you can lift it into the locker unaided.
• Jet2 includes a 10kg cabin bag at 56cm x 45cm x 25cm plus a small under-seat item on every ticket. That makes it the most generous of the low-cost set at Gatwick.
• TUI allows 10kg of hand luggage at 55cm x 40cm x 20cm plus a small personal item. The rules are the same on BY and TOM flight numbers from either terminal.
• Wizz Air's free bag is 40cm x 30cm x 20cm, up to 10kg, under the seat. WIZZ Priority adds a 55cm x 40cm x 23cm trolley at 10kg for the overhead locker.
• Ryanair's free bag is also 40cm x 30cm x 20cm. The Priority and 2 Cabin Bags add-on brings a 10kg trolley at 55cm x 40cm x 20cm.

Norse Atlantic, the long-haul low-cost carrier, follows the same logic stretched over bigger aircraft: its cheapest Light fares include an under-seat item only, with cabin and hold bags added by fare tier, so check the fare table before assuming long-haul means generous. Measure any bag with wheels and handles included, because the gate sizers do.

Hold bags follow the same split between airlines that bundle and airlines that sell. Most bag drop desks will take whatever you have paid for up to the 32kg ceiling; what varies is what the ticket already includes:

• easyJet sells hold bags in 15kg and 23kg options, up to three per passenger. Either can be upweighted to a 32kg maximum for a further fee.
• British Airways includes a 23kg hold bag on most fares. The hand-baggage-only Basic fares exclude it, and bags between 23kg and 32kg pay an overweight charge of about £65 each way.
• TUI packages include 20kg per person, rising to 25kg on some premium products. Flight-only TUI tickets sell hold luggage separately.
• Jet2holidays and Jet2CityBreaks packages include a 22kg hold bag. Jet2 flight-only bookings pay for it.
• Wizz Air and Ryanair sell hold bags by weight tier. Neither includes any hold luggage in the base fare.

Two money rules hold across all of them. Buying the bag with the original booking is cheapest, adding it online later costs more, and paying at the airport costs the most of all. And weight sold is per bag, not per person pooled, unless the airline says otherwise, so a couple with one 23kg allowance cannot check two 12kg cases on it.

Anything that will not ride the standard baggage belt goes through the oversized luggage desks, which sit right beside the check-in desks in both terminals: skis, golf clubs, bikes in boxes, surfboards, musical instruments, car seats travelling in the hold, and anything else long, fragile or awkward. Check in as normal first, then take the item to the oversized desk, and allow a few extra minutes for the detour. Sports equipment and other odd-sized items need booking on with the airline before you travel, usually as a paid extra with its own size and weight rules.

Children's kit is the friendly exception: pushchairs, car seats and travel cots usually travel free on top of the standard allowance with the major Gatwick carriers, and pushchairs can generally be kept until the aircraft door, where crew stow them. The detail varies by airline, so add the items to the booking rather than turning up and hoping; the travelling with children guide covers the family logistics end to end.

The allowance question is half of packing; the other half is what is allowed where. Cabin bags now carry liquids in containers up to 2 litres through Gatwick security, with laptops and tablets staying packed, and the metal-flask and frozen-liquid exceptions covered in the liquid rules. Valuables, medicines, documents and anything you cannot afford to lose belong in the cabin bag every time: hold bags occasionally go missing, and spare lithium batteries and power banks are banned from the hold outright.

The hold takes what the cabin cannot: liquids over 2 litres (Gatwick sets no size cap on hold liquids), sharp and blunt items off the banned-cabin list, and the heavy stuff, subject to the aviation-wide caps of 500ml per aerosol canister, 2 litres of aerosols per person, and 5 litres of 24% to 70% alcohol. Food and powders travel better in the hold too, since they slow the cabin-bag scanners at security. If your bags have a gap between landing and a late flight, or you want a day in London unencumbered, the left luggage desks store them by the day at both terminals.

• Measure with wheels, handles and outer pockets included. The gate sizers judge the whole bag, not the label on it, and a soft bag stuffed round is a different shape from the one the manufacturer measured.
• Weigh the bag at home, not at the desk. Bathroom scales are close enough: weigh yourself, weigh yourself holding the bag, subtract. Overweight surprises at the desk are the most expensive kind.
• Buy the allowance online, never at the airport. Every low-cost carrier prices the same bag cheapest at booking, dearer online later, and dearest at the desk or gate. Decide what you need before you leave for Gatwick.
• Flying early with hold bags? Drop them the night before. TUI, Jet2, British Airways and easyJet all run free evening bag drop for next-day morning flights; the check-in guide has the hours and cut-offs.
• Split the risk on the way out. A change of clothes and any essentials in the cabin bag turn a lost hold bag from a crisis into an annoyance, and connecting itineraries multiply the chance of a bag taking a later flight than you; the connections guide explains through-checking. The rest of the airport's practical services are indexed in the services guide.