Iberia’s flight attendants object to the larger overhead bins that the Spanish airline and British Airways sister carrier has been putting in Airbus A350-900 planes. Customers are able to fit more bags into XL bins, making them heavier. And flight attendants went to court seeking an order that they don’t have to lift those bins closed. Specifically, they sought one of two remedies:
The Court declined to impose either of the cabin crew union demands, did order the airline to limit the weight of carry on bags that passengers bring on planes.
Already there’s a weight limit for carry on bags on Iberia: 10kg (22 pounds) for economy passengers and 14kg (31 pounds) for business class. However it isn’t well-enforced. The court would require weight checks, as some airlines do in Europe and elsewhere.
There’s another solution to all of this, of course. Use better overhead bins. The larger bins American Airlines uses, for instance, have an auto lift feature where you simply pull down the bin and it helps raise it up, power assist as it were. That way whomever is closing the bin isn’t actually lifting up the full weight of the bin.
