Luggage Weight Limits When Travelling to Africa

Your international flights to Africa will typically be with a larger international carrier such as Virgin Atlantic, Emirates Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Qatar, Kenya Airways, South African Airways and British Airways. Most airlines will allow you to have one bag in the hold and one carry-on bag included within the ticket cost; however, the baggage allowances are usually individual to the carrier. There can be checked luggage restrictions or luggage weight limits.

For example, the baggage allowance for British Airways is 1 x checked bag with a maximum 23kg, plus 1 x cabin bag for travellers in Economy. For additional checked bags, you’ll have to pay an additional fee, or if you are planning to travel in Business, an additional checked bag is included in the price, and two additional bags for First Class.

Qatar Airways on the other hand has different weight restrictions for different cabin classes and routes. For flights to/from Africa with Qatar, Economy Class is allowed 2 x 23kg checked bags, while Business and First Class is allowed 2 x 32kg checked bags.

If your itinerary states that soft bags are needed, this is because storage space on light aircraft flights is limited and therefore luggage should be soft (e.g. a duffel bag) so they can be squashed and manipulated into a small hold in the plane.

Your bag should have no spines, frames or a rigid structure, although one flat side is usually allowed. Also, bags should have very small wheels or preferably, none at all.

Your main bag will be placed in the hold, and you will be holding your carry-on bags (i.e. hand baggage) on your lap for the duration of the flight as the aircraft do not have under-seat storage or overhead lockers for stowing bags.

Below we’ve listed the local airlines by destination that you might have included in your Yellow Zebra itinerary.

Need help deciding what to pack for your African safari holiday? Read what to pack!