People have passionate opinions about whether or not to check luggage or travel with only carryons. Personally, I am on #TeamCarryon all the way, but I can understand some of the pros and cons either way. One annoying part about traveling with carryon luggage is trying to make sure that you have room in the overhead bin to put your carryon. Being forced to gate check your carryon combines most of the negatives of both a carryon AND a checked bag. I don’t enjoy trying to “rush the gate” to board early, but I enjoy even less having to gate check my carryons.
Airbus Airspace L Overhead Bins
The aircraft manufacturer Airbus has recently announced new Airspace L Overhead bins. These bins are designed to allow roller bags (probably the most common kind of carryon) to fit vertically in their existing A320 aircraft. Looking at some of the pictures provided by Airbus, I can see how this could make a big difference.
Right now on many aircraft (especially smaller aircraft), rollerboard carryons don’t even fit, or if they do fit, they have to be laid flat. These new Airbus Airspace L overhead bins allow rollerboard luggage to be stored vertically, drastically expanding the number of these types of carryons that can fit in an aircraft. According to Airbus, it can allow up to 60% more luggage storage than traditional overhead bins.
Retrofitting Existing Aircraft
Possibly the best part about this is that the Airspace L overhead bins are designed in such a way that they can be easily retrofitted on existing A320 aircraft. Airbus and manufacturer Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH (EFW) say that they can be swapped out in a matter of 3-5 days. In fact, German airline Lufthansa has already announced that they are retrofitting 38 of their Airbus A320 aircraft with these bins starting in January 2025.
The Bottom Line
One of the challenges of traveling with a carryon is finding space to put your suitcase in the overhead bin. Too often I run into a situation where there isn’t enough room in the overhead bins and I have to gate-check my carryon. That comes with the worst of both worlds and is a situation to be avoided. I’m excited for the new Airbus Airspace L overhead bins, even though it will still be a few years before they get installed and retrofitted into existing A320 aircraft.
What do you think of these new overhead bins? Leave your thoughts in the comments below
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
How will this revolutionize air travel? Airlines like AA and Alaska have been retrofitting similar bins on their narrowbodies for years; not sure where this does anything different.
Just took a flight on an AA A321neo with the Airspace XL bin. Indeed it was awesome to see how much extra space there was!
This looks like what newer 737’s have had for a while. What am I missing?
Roll aboard.