Alliance Air gives you one free cabin bag, and it caps out at just 5 kg. That is lighter than almost every other domestic carrier in India. The Alliance Air baggage allowance runs tighter than the airline it used to belong to.
Alliance Air is not Air India anymore
Alliance Air used to fly as a regional subsidiary of Air India. That changed in April 2022. Air India was sold to the Tata Group, and Alliance Air was carved out as its own airline.
It is now wholly government owned and independent. The two carriers share a history but not a baggage desk. Do not assume a rule on Air India’s page carries over.
Check the Alliance Air baggage allowance on its own page before you fly.
Cabin baggage: one bag, 5 kg, free
Alliance Air’s own baggage policy allows one piece of hand baggage. The free limit is 5 kg. There is no separate free personal item.
Your laptop bag and your day bag need to travel as one piece. The airline also caps the bag by size. Its listed dimensions add up to about 85 cm, height plus length plus width.
That is tighter than the boxy shape common on larger jets. Run your bag through a cabin bag size checker before you pack it.
Checked baggage: 15 kg standard, 10 kg on the smallest routes
Most Alliance Air domestic routes carry 15 kg checked per passenger. Flights on Dornier aircraft carry only 10 kg. So does the route into Kullu.
Those planes fly short runways. Some sit at high altitude airports with strict weight limits. Every kilogram matters more on a small aircraft.
International Alliance Air flights carry 20 kg checked. No single piece can weigh more than 32 kg on any route. See the fuller checked baggage rules most travelers expect from a full service carrier, or compare against a much larger domestic operator like IndiGo.
| Bag type | Alliance Air limit |
|---|---|
| Cabin bag, free | 5 kg, one piece, about 85 cm combined |
| Checked bag, most domestic routes | 15 kg |
| Checked bag, Kullu and Dornier flights | 10 kg |
| Checked bag, international flights | 20 kg, no single piece over 32 kg |
| Excess baggage, domestic | INR 700 per kg |
| Excess baggage, international | INR 750 per kg |
Excess baggage costs more than a lot of tickets
Go over your Alliance Air baggage allowance and the meter starts running fast. Domestic excess costs 700 rupees per kilogram. International excess costs 750 rupees per kilogram, tax included.
Buying extra weight in advance is cheaper than paying at the counter. Prepaid domestic baggage starts around 3,150 rupees for 5 kg. A baggage cost calculator can show whether prepaying beats the walk up rate on your route.
What flyers actually run into at the counter
A forum thread on the Delhi to Shimla route shows the real friction. One traveler could not buy extra checked weight through Air India’s own booking system. Air India had sold the connecting ticket, but its site would not add Alliance Air baggage.
Alliance Air and Air India still share code shares and ticketing on some routes. Their baggage systems do not talk to each other, though. Buy any extra Alliance Air baggage allowance directly from Alliance Air, not through a partner site.
The same thread shows travelers packing down to the 10 kg limit instead. Nobody wanted to risk a bag getting left behind at a small airport.
Why the limits stay this tight
Alliance Air flies ATR 72 turboprops and Dornier 228s. Many routes reach short runways and thin mountain air. Every kilogram of payload competes with fuel and passenger weight on aircraft this small.
That tradeoff cuts both ways, though. Students get an extra 10 kg checked with valid identification on most routes, Kullu excluded. Pack light and you will rarely test any of these numbers.
That is a fair argument for the kind of lighter carry-on luggage that fits inside 5 kg with room to spare.
The bottom line
The Alliance Air baggage allowance is tight by design. A free cabin bag tops out at 5 kg. Checked baggage runs 15 kg on most domestic routes and just 10 kg on the smallest aircraft.
It is no longer Air India’s allowance printed under a different logo. Weigh your bag at home, confirm the current policy, and buy extra weight in advance rather than at the gate.
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