
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 8, 1994                   TAG: 9403080073
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

USAIR PLANS LUGGAGE-SIZE CRACKDOWN

As part of its new program to move passengers and planes more quickly to cut costs, USAir is cracking down on travelers who violate rules about carry-on luggage.

Travelers laden with art objects, portfolios, pinatas, overstuffed garment bags, musical instruments and carefully wrapped baby gifts are being required to slip those items into a baggage sizer before boarding any of the airline's 90 discount-fare "Project High Ground" flights to East Coast and Midwest cities. Oversized items get checked as baggage.

Starting April 4, USAir will use the sizer for all of its 2,500 daily flights nationwide.

Begun Feb. 16, the Operation High Ground operation is designed to use aircraft and workers more efficiently, keeping planes in the air more so USAir can compete with low-cost carriers. None of the flights operates from Roanoke.

To make money, the discounted flights need to be nearly full. USAir surveys show that when planes are more than 80 percent full, passengers can slow the operation considerably when they're struggling to stash oversized carry-on items.

"When the plane is 80 percent full, bags became a very big issue," says Andrea Butler, a spokeswoman for the Arlington-based airline. "High Ground was the impetus for deciding that we need to enforce carry-on baggage rules."

Regulations allow carry-on items no larger than 8 by 16 by 21 inches under the seat and 8 by 16 by 24 inches for the overhead bins. Folded garment bags, the most common carry-on culprit, can't be more than 8 inches thick.

- The Baltimore Sun

by CNB